Understanding Organic Traffic from Google News, News Tab, and Top Stories: A Guide for Publishers

TL;DR

• Google News → Standalone app + news.google.com. Data in GSC(Google Search Console) is only available via the Google News performance report.
• Google Search → News tab → Filtered search results showing only news articles. Data available in GSC under Search Type: News.
• Google Top Stories → Carousel/box in the main Search results.
• Data challenge → GSC doesn’t separate these surfaces. Tools like StoryHawk are needed to measure Top Stories visibility directly.

1. Google News App

What it is:
Google News is a dedicated product (news.google.com and the Google News app) that aggregates headlines across publishers worldwide. It personalises feeds using a mix of algorithms and user preferences.

Why it matters:
Appearing in Google News can increase brand discovery and drive recurring visits beyond traditional search intent.

Where to get data:

• Google News performance report in GSC → Tracks clicks, impressions, CTR, and position for traffic from news.google.com and the Google News app.
• Important limitation: This report excludes traffic from the Google Search “News” tab and Top Stories.

2. Google Search - News Tab

What it is:
When a user searches on Google and clicks the News tab, results are filtered to show only articles from news-oriented publishers.

Why it matters:
It captures users who are explicitly seeking news context - broader than Top Stories and often less time-sensitive.

Where to get data:

• GSC → Performance → Search Type: News.
  This is where traffic from the News tab is reported.
• Google’s documentation confirms that “News tab traffic is covered in the Search performance report when filtered by Search Type: News”, while the Google News report only shows app/news.google.com data (Google Search Console Help).

3. Google Top Stories

What it is:
The Top Stories carousel is a highly visible SERP (Search Engine Results Page) feature at the top of Google Search when queries are news-oriented. It usually shows four highlighted articles(based on the topic and current interest) but can expand into a larger box with more coverage of 10 results.

Google has even launched in the US the feature “Preferred Sources” that let users customise which outlets appear in their Top Stories feed - a sign that brand recognition and loyalty are becoming ranking factors.

Why it matters:
Top Stories often dominate above-the-fold search real estate. With StoryHawk, you can track the position of the carousel based on the queries that you want to track. Securing a winning placement here can generate explosive short-term traffic during breaking events.

Example of a breaking news story and the impact of ranking well (not great) on Google Top Stories.

Where to get data:

• Google Search Console (Search Type: News):
  • Covers traffic from the News tab in Search and the Google News app.
  • Top Stories traffic, however, is different. Because Top Stories is displayed inside the main Google Search results (Search Type: All), its clicks are counted under Search Type: Web in Google Search Console — not under “News.”
  • This means that if you’re looking for performance from Top Stories, you won’t find it in the News report. It will appear in your standard Web search data instead, mixed with all other organic search traffic.
• Limitations: Because GSC doesn’t break out Top Stories separately, publishers can’t isolate performance here.
• StoryHawk: This is exactly the gap StoryHawk fills. We track hourly visibility in Top Stories carousels, showing which publishers appear, for how long, and in what position - data you can’t get in GSC.

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4. Quick Comparison of Data Sources

Why This Distinction Matters

• If you only look at GSC → Search Type: News, you’ll see aggregated data that lumps the News tab together, which is not driving a huge amount of traffic
• The Google News performance report only covers the Google News app and news.google.com, excluding Search surfaces.
• For publishers competing in breaking news, Top Stories is the prize - but you can’t measure it in GSC directly.

That’s why visibility-tracking tools like StoryHawk.io are essential: they let you see whether your newsroom is truly winning the Top Stories carousel in real time.

✅ Next step: If you want clarity on how your newsroom is performing in Top Stories today, try StoryHawk.

Svet Petkov

Svet Petkov is the founder of StoryHawk. He has a solid background in SEO optimisation and in the past couple of year in SEO for news publisher. With his passion of Python and data he is alway interest in providing a valuable data and sotry behind.