Status update on the Google indexing bugs
A couple of weeks ago we reported on a number of indexing bugs[1] with Google Search. Google has updated us on Twitter with a status update on those bugs.
Mobile-indexing bug. The mobile-indexing bug is now 99% resolved, with almost all the URLs being restored. The mobile-indexing bug was when Google failed to select any page at all to index. The issue impacted about 0.2% of Google’s index. That issue started earlier in September and spiked around September 29th or so.
On October 5th[2], Google reprocessed about 50% of those URLs and by today, October 9th, 99% of those URLs have been restored.
So mobile-indexing issues are virtually fixed.
Canonicalization bug. Google has restored about 55% of the URLs impacted by the canonical issue. This issue is when the URL Inspector may show the URL as a duplicate and the Google-selected canonical will be different from it. This impacted about 0.02% of Google’s index. That issue started around September 20th and ran through October 1st.
On October 5h, Google reprocessed about 25% of those URLS and by today, October 9th, 55% of those impacted URLs have been restored.
So the canonical issues still have some time to be fully fixed.
Google’s update: Here is the tweet from Google:
Update: the mobile indexing was effectively resolved yesterday, with about 99% of the URLs restored. Work on the canonical issue continues, with about 55% of impacted URLs restored.
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) October 9, 2020[3]
Why we care. If you noticed indexing issues over the past couple of weeks, you are not alone. Google is aware of the issue and is actively working on fixing the issues. Keep this in mind for reporting on indexing and organic search traffic from Google. If you were impacted, it may have negatively impacted your metrics.
About The Author
Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick[4], a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable[5], a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry’s personal blog is named Cartoon Barry[6] and he can be followed on Twitter here.
References
- ^ number of indexing bugs (searchengineland.com)
- ^ October 5th (twitter.com)
- ^ October 9, 2020 (twitter.com)
- ^ RustyBrick (www.rustybrick.com)
- ^ Search Engine Roundtable (www.seroundtable.com)
- ^ Cartoon Barry (www.barryschwartz.org)
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