Recent Google News Indexing Issues

[deviants]

My site has recently been facing a pretty severe Google News indexing issue. Only one out of every 5 or 6 articles is being indexed in real time. And when a new article DOES get indexed, something recent seems to get dropped.

Some of the "removed" posts return a few days later, but given that I'm in the breaking news space, this isn't an especially helpful outcome.

This seems thoroughly unrelated to quality or uniqueness. I've had non-exclusive stories get indexed, and very in-depth/exclusive ones not show up.

I've noticed that a few pretty big sites in my (entertainment) vertical are facing a similar - but not quite as severe - issue. So I'm wondering if this is a broad issue anyone has encountered and/or knows how to address.

I should also note that it passes all the Search Console/Partner Dash diagnostics. No crawl errors, no fetch as google block, no sitemap issue, and "success" whenever I test a URL in partner dash.

[keyplyr]

Hello deviants and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

There are a couple things impacting the index. One... many sites are switching to secure content ( HTTPS [webmasterworld.com] ) so there may be some reindexing going on because of it, shuffling the other results.

Also, coming up Google will be implementing the Mobile-First Index [webmasterworld.com] which may also be contributing to the current results because of testing in some areas.

Then of course there is the basic index flux as AI plays a more significant role in the SERP.

[deviants]

Thanks for the reply - I appreciate the help!

It's interesting, though, as both of those changes would (seemingly?) favor my publication. Google started exclusively indexing the https version of my site over a year ago -- around the time we implemented AMP compatibility.

Which leads to the second point - I would expect the site to fare better in a mobile-first world. Our AMP pages tend to rank very well even on competitive news topics, and our non-AMP site is fully responsive, clean and theoretically more user-friendly on mobile than desktop.

And, to be honest, it's the inconsistency that really has me concerned and confused. If none of the pages were being indexed in Google and/or Google News, then I'd wonder if it were an https issue or some sort of server-side block. And if shorter or more media-oriented pieces were the ones being rejected, I'd assume it could be a content issue.

But neither is the case. Some ARE being indexed, and there doesn't seem to be any discernible correlation between the quality/relevance of the content and its status on Google.

[keyplyr]

I would expect the site to fare better in a mobile-first world

And that may be what will happen once the Mobile-first Index is implemented early 2018.

Until then, the index may be showing volatile results.

[benxd7]

I'm getting some problems in Google News, my articles is not showing in top stories anymore. anyone can help me ?