Key Takeaways
Google fixed the problem with showing news articles on Google News and website traffic is back to normal.
Google used the Google Search Status Dashboard to mark the issue as resolved.
People first raised the issue on Twitter, and later there were discussions in Google's help community.
Google told everyone they fixed the problem with how news articles showed on Google News. This problem has caused some websites to get fewer visitors from Google News. Many websites need Google News to get people to their sites.
To let people know the problem was fixed, Google used a tool called the Google Search Status Dashboard. This tool allows Google to share updates about issues that could impact websites and change how they perform.
After fixing the news article problem, Google used the Search Status Dashboard again to confirm the issue was resolved. Google said they would not give any more updates on this specific problem. This means Google believes it has fully addressed it.
When Did the Problem Start?
A few hours earlier, some people reported on Twitter that they were getting less traffic from Google News.
John Mueller responded to these reports.:
This led to discussions in Google's Publisher Center Help community, where website owners were trying to understand and fix the issue.
Some website owners had already noticed changes in their Google News traffic over the previous few weeks. These changes may have been caused by how Google was ranking syndicated news content differently.
A monitoring tool called Semrush Sensor also spotted a big change in the News category over the past 30 days. This was called a "Googlequake" which means a major shift in how Google displays news.
However, on July 14th at 5:06 pm ET, Google gave an update saying they successfully fixed the problem with indexing news content. They said website traffic should return to normal levels by mid-July.
Google also mentioned there will be no further updates on this specific issue.