The Google Search Status Dashboard is Google’s official page for reporting widespread problems with Search, such as crawling, indexing or serving issues, and for listing the latest ranking updates. When your traffic changes suddenly, check it first to rule out a Google-side cause, then check Search Console and your own site.
⚡ Key Takeaways
- The dashboard reports issues that affect many sites or users, not problems limited to a single site.
- It also lists the latest ranking updates that are relevant to website owners, including core and spam updates.
- Each entry carries one of four statuses: available, service information, service disruption or service outage.
- An empty dashboard does not mean your site is fine. Issues that affect only a few sites are often not listed.
- Use it as the first step in a traffic-drop check, then move on to Search Console and your own changes.
Google launched the Google Search Status Dashboard in December 2022 to give site owners one official place to see widespread problems with Search. When rankings or indexing suddenly change, the first question is always whether the cause is on your site or on Google’s side, and this page helps you answer it. This guide explains what the dashboard shows, how to read it and what to do when your traffic drops. The details reflect Google’s documentation as checked in November 2026.
What the Google Search Status Dashboard shows
According to Google’s documentation, the dashboard provides status information on the systems that power Google Search. It shows issues that affect many sites or users, so if you see an annotation on a date when your performance changed, it may be related. Entries cover areas such as crawling, indexing and serving.
The dashboard also lists the latest ranking updates that are relevant to website owners. That includes core updates and spam updates. If you are trying to work out whether a traffic change lines up with an update, this is the official place to check the dates. For our own explainers, see our guides to the May 2026 core update and the March 2026 spam update.
How to read the four statuses
Each entry on the dashboard carries a status. Google defines them like this (the dashboard’s legend says “service”, while Google’s help page says “system”):
- Available: the system is generally working and available.
- Service information: an update or change to a system, for example a ranking update has started rolling out.
- Service disruption: websites may see degraded performance because of a common third-party issue, such as DNS servers.
- Service outage: the system is not functioning to a large extent, and a large number of sites or users are affected.
Two things are easy to misread. First, a status describes Google’s systems, not your site, so “available” does not prove that your pages are being crawled and indexed normally. Second, a ranking update entry is usually informational. Google notes that there is often no action needed, but if a link to guidance is provided, it is worth reading.
How Google handles an issue
Google describes four stages for an issue that appears on the dashboard:
- Detection and initial response: the Search Relations team monitors many signals, including internal monitoring and community feedback, and updates the dashboard when an issue is widespread.
- Investigation: Search engineering teams work out the root cause.
- Follow up: while an issue is ongoing, updates can include the scale or regions affected, when to expect the next update and progress towards a fix.
- Mitigation or fix: an issue is considered fixed once changes are in place that Google is confident will end the impact. Sites may still see effects until Google reprocesses them, and workarounds are shared when possible.
What the dashboard does not show
The dashboard is for widespread issues. If you are seeing a problem that is not listed, Google says it may be isolated to your own pages or affect only a limited number of searchers or sites. So it cannot replace Search Console, which shows problems specific to your property such as indexing errors, manual actions and security issues.
Incident pages on the dashboard list their times in US Pacific time, so convert them to your own time zone before you compare them with a traffic chart.
What to do when your traffic drops
- Check the dashboard. Look for open incidents and recent ranking updates around the date of the change.
- Check Search Console. Review Performance, page indexing, manual actions and security issues.
- Line up the dates. Compare your drop with any listed update, remembering that updates roll out over days or weeks.
- Review your own changes. Think about deployments, robots.txt edits, noindex tags, redirects and migrations. Our guide to why Google might not be indexing your page covers the most common causes.
- Avoid reactive changes. If an update is still rolling out, wait for it to finish, then follow the guidance linked from its entry.
If your drop does not line up with any dashboard entry, the cause is more likely on your own site. Our guide to why a website’s ranking drops walks through the technical, content and link causes, and our explainer on what a core update means for your website covers how to respond when one is the cause.
How to follow the dashboard
You do not need to check the page every morning. According to Google’s documentation, you can subscribe to its RSS feed to be notified about issues and updates. Checking it when something looks wrong, or when an update is announced, is enough for most site owners.
💡 Pro Tip: When you start a traffic investigation, write down the date the change began before you open any tool. Everything else, including dashboard entries, Search Console data and your own release log, only makes sense once you can compare it with a date.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Google Search Status Dashboard used for?
It is Google’s official page for reporting widespread issues with Search systems and for listing the latest ranking updates that matter to website owners. Site owners use it to tell whether a sudden change might be caused by something on Google’s side.
Does the dashboard show core updates?
Yes. Google says the dashboard lists the latest ranking updates relevant to website owners, and core and spam updates appear there with their dates.
If the dashboard shows everything is available, does my site have no problems?
No. The dashboard covers widespread issues only. A problem limited to your pages, such as a stray noindex tag or a robots.txt block, will not appear there, so check Search Console as well.
How often should I check it?
When something looks wrong, such as a sudden change in traffic, indexing or rankings, and when a Google update is announced. If you want automatic alerts, subscribe to the RSS feed that Google offers.
Can the dashboard tell me why my rankings dropped?
Only partly. It can show that a ranking update or incident coincided with your drop, but it cannot diagnose your site. For that, use Search Console and a structured review of your own changes. If you would like an expert to do it, see our SEO audit services.
Conclusion
The Google Search Status Dashboard will not tell you what is wrong with your site, but it quickly tells you whether Google itself has a known problem or a ranking update underway. Make it step one of every traffic investigation, then move on to Search Console and your own changes. If you need help finding the cause, our SEO team can review your site, and our guide to technical SEO explains the foundations that prevent many of these problems.
