Changing domain name and effects on Google News

Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi

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Changing domain name and effects on Google News

fredw

5:20 pm on Nov 20, 2008 (gmt 0)

Hi. FredW here. I normally hang out in the Adsense forum.

I've searched through WW looking for an answer to this but did not see my question addressed...

I am considering rebranding one of my popular sites with a domain name change. I would permanently 301 all the old domain urls to the new domain. I understand (I think) the potential consequences of doing this, the temporary loss of serps ranking, etc.

However, what about Google News? News content that I originate is picked up by Google News. I'm very proud of this, I'm the only news site in my niche that is covered in this way. If I do the domain name change with the 301 from the old domain, will Google News follow it? Will they continue picking up my original content at the new address, or will I lose my Google News coverage? Do I have to contact them about the address change?

Any experience any of you have on this that you could share would be most appreciated. Thanks.

tedster

6:29 pm on Nov 20, 2008 (gmt 0)

There's a Publisher's Help section on Google news that has the information you need:

1. Before switching, submit the URL of your new site at least two weeks before the scheduled change.
2. We'll temporarily index both of your sites, but make sure to only display one set of articles. You can verify that we've started crawling articles from your new domain by using our site operator. From the Google News homepage, enter [ site:yoursite.com ] and click "Search News."
3. Once the switch is completed, let us know and we'll remove your old site from our system, leaving your new site as the only one that we're crawling.
Changes to Your Site: Domain [google.com]

Dave_Hybrid

7:25 pm on Nov 20, 2008 (gmt 0)

I'd give it serious thought, changing domain name for me pretty much resulted in starting from scratch, 301'd too.

fredw

12:09 am on Nov 21, 2008 (gmt 0)

Thanks, tedster. According to their suggestion, they're wanting to see both sites live for a period of time. Might not this cause Google to see my two sites as duplication? I was going to switch all at once, from having the old domain, to having the new domain and the old domain on 301's.

Dave: Thanks for your experience. I am giving it serious thought, but the fact that my Adsense is tanking right now is pushing me in the direction of I might as well do it anyway...

Quadrille

12:39 am on Nov 21, 2008 (gmt 0)

Short-term duplication rarely causes problems, and will self-correct anyway once the duplicate has gone.

Any potential damage should be prevented by the 301, once the move is made.