Wrong Niche Next to Website Name on Google News

[El_Matador]

Hi Guys,

Recently I got one of websites into Google News. Great!

However, for some reason Google News seems to think that every article I publish is a Press Release - 'Press Release' is next to my sites name in the listings - when in fact none are.

My news sitemap has come back with no errors, though Google is yet to index any of the content in it according to webmaster tools.

When submitting the inclusion, I certainly did not choose Press Release as a topic for my content.

Does anyone have any experience of this?

Cheers,
Michael

[tedster]

The issue may lie in your XML Sitemap. I believe what you see as a "niche" is what is listed in the <genres> element for each story.

Note that the example at [google.com...] uses "press release" by default in that field, and your Sitemap may have simply retained that field.

According to Google News, the "genre" field is optional - you can omit it with no problem.

[edited by: tedster at 6:14 pm (utc) on Feb 10, 2010]

[El_Matador]

Hi Tedster,

Thanks for your reply.

I have the genres element set as follows:

<n:genres>opinion</n:genres>

...for every piece of content. Perhaps opinion is read as Press Release, but i doubt it.

Anyway, I'll contact G and see what they say, if anything. If they dont get back to me, i'll omit it as you say and see what that does.

Thanks again.

[FattyB]

I would drop them a line, they usually reply in a couple of days. Sites I have seen this on usually carry actual raw press releases as well as their main news. If it is a mistake I am sure they will correct it.

[google.com...]
James