Google News XML Sitemap usage

[Seoering]

Is there any easy way to find out what XML sitemap Google is using to return entries in Google news? The XML file I thought it was using states:

X Submitted
0 indexed

So, to conclude:

- Is there a way to find out what XML sitemap is being used?
- Do you have to submit a new request informing Google of the preferred XML sitemap?

[tedster]

The answer should be right there in your Webmaster Tools account - honestly!

[levo]

[support.google.com...]

Once you submit a news sitemap, it shows 'News' as content type.

[Seoering]

Thanks for the response chaps.

Tedster. The issue is that the stories are appearing in Google News, but not using the only news XML sitemap provided. So I will have the following title:

Blue widgets for sale at Red Storage place

But the title will show up as:

Widgets by Red

So I'm assuming Google is grabbing the information from elsewhere. Only question is, where?

GWT does not return the actual sitemap that is being used, which is why it is confusing.

[levo]

Google uses both news sitemap and Googlebot to find new articles. AFAIK they extract the title from the article. I would check if the h1 is too short and Google is picking up the next header. You may also try Article schema [schema.org...] to markup your page.

[Seoering]

Thanks Levo. I actually think an XML sitemap was never submitted in the first place!

[Seoering]

Hello all. Just an update on this. Google is still crawling the website and returning the <h1> or opening paragraph as the title in Google News. The news sitemap that I uploaded has '226 URLs submitted' with '0 indexed' - indicating it is not using the relevant sitemap.

I've submitted this through their change request for Google news and the response was typical Google (i.e. verify it in GWT and it will be fine) - its been a month and there hasn't been any movement on this.

Any tips? Experiences? Or suggestions from members? Let me know if you don't understand the problem and I will try and drill down on some examples.

[levo]

Mine says "-" for indexed. As long as articles are making to Google News, I wouldn't worry about it.

[tedster]

I've seen examples of sites where WMT says the Sitemap URLs aren't being indexed at all - but the evidence is obvious that it is.

[Seoering]

Thats guys.

Levo - I'd prefer Google to return the title tag as opposed to the <h1> tag that might not always contain the person's name I'm targeting (long story as to why the name isn't in there). So I think the sitemap will enhance the overall user experience by giving more information about the story in question.

Tedster - Yes, I thought it was odd. But I can only conclude that it means that its not indexed from the sitemap?

I was thinking of placing a thread in the Google product forums to see if I could get an answer on this.

[lucy24]

But I can only conclude that it means that its not indexed from the sitemap?

Something like that. Or: everything was indexed before you ever submitted a sitemap, and they haven't got around to cross-checking whether the URLs on your sitemap correspond to the URLs they have indexed.

This is only one of several things in WMT that is really not about your site at all; it's purely about, well, WMT itself.

[phranque]

are you specifying the correct xml schema for news-specific elements?

have you checked all the Google News Sitemaps documentation?:
http://support.google.com/news/publisher/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=2527688&rd=1 [support.google.com]

is your sitemap validating?

have you checked that you are meeting all the Google News Technical requirements?:
http://support.google.com/news/publisher/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2481358 [support.google.com]

[tedster]

Right lucy - sometimes WMT clearly shows its colors as "just a reporting tool". By that I mean it's tapping into a secondary data source or copy of Google's core ranking data. And that being the case, sometimes stuff just happens.