Understanding Google’s Algorithm Impact on Your News Website: A Case Study
Introduction
In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, maintaining visibility on search engines is vital for news outlets. Recently, a sports news website experienced a significant drop in visibility within Google’s News tab and Top Stories sections. This article aims to analyze potential causes for such a decline and offer insights into addressing these issues.
Background of the Case
The website in question consistently produced over 20 original articles daily, covering sports news from unique perspectives to differentiate itself from competitors. Prior to the downturn, the site enjoyed prominent placement, frequently appearing on the first or second page of Google News and in Top Stories, with decent traffic levels.
Observed Changes
Starting the first week of July, the site’s performance markedly declined:
- Drop from Page 1 to beyond Page 10 in the News tab
- Complete disappearance from Top Stories
- Significant reduction in overall traffic (~90%)
Additionally, the site remains visible in regular Google web search results for certain queries, with rankings still in the seventh page of News, but absent from Top Stories.
Potential Contributing Factors
- Algorithmic Adjustments
Google frequently updates its algorithms, particularly for news content, aiming to optimize relevance and dwell time. Sudden performance drops may indicate the site has been flagged for issues related to content quality or policy violations. Despite no recent changes, such fluctuations can occur post-update.
- Traffic Anomalies and Bot Activity
Since June, the website has experienced increased bot traffic originating from Sweden. While initial periods of high bot activity did not significantly impact visibility, the recent escalation—surpassing genuine user traffic—raises concerns.
Bot traffic can distort analytics data and, in some cases, trigger Google’s quality algorithms, especially if such traffic mimics genuine engagement or violates policies. Moreover, if bots bypass robots.txt or other security measures, they may artificially inflate metrics, leading to potential penalties or ranking reevaluations.
- Technical and Content Integrity
The site maintains strong technical health, with good EEAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) signals and no manual actions reported. However, continuous monitoring is essential to ensure technical issues are absent.
Recommendations
- Conduct a comprehensive review of recent algorithm updates from Google relevant to news content.
- Analyze traffic sources and patterns to identify and mitigate malicious or unnatural bot activity.
- Implement advanced security measures and bot detection tools to control unwanted automation.
- Review content for compliance with Google News policies, ensuring originality,