Google Not Indexing New Content Again

Aug 8, 2019 - 6:59 am 14 by
Filed Under Google

Google News Issues

Google, as of a few hours ago, is having issues again indexing new content. If you want to find the latest news from the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post or your other favorite magazines - you may be out of luck. Google has confirmed the issue and said they are working on resolving it. With that and related to it, the URL inspection tool is not working.

Here is a screen shot from Valentin Pletzer on Twitter from a few hours ago showing the Washington Post not returning articles in Google News for the past hour or so:

click for full size

Google has confirmed the issue on Twitter saying "We're aware of reports of indexing issues that are impacting some sites beginning earlier today. We'll provide another update when we have more information to share."

With this, there is also an issue with the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console, it just returns a something went wrong response:

Url Inspection Tool Bug

John Mueller and Danny Sullivan from Google are aware of this as well and they said it is related. Google wrote on Twitter "Related to this, we're currently seeing issues in the URL Inspection tool within Search Console. We recommend waiting for this issue to be resolved, and then checking the URLs later on. Thanks for your patience & sorry for the inconvenience!"

Here are Danny and John's responses on Twitter:

Here is Valentin, one of the first to spot this issue:

It is still an issue now, some content is getting through but clearly it is far from fixed. Google is working on resolving this issue.

This has happened before with something happening in April 2019 but bigger issues back in earlier. Google fixed a much larger Google search indexing bug that was impacting Google Search Console. This also comes several months after another Google News indexing issue.

Forum discussion at Twitter & Google Webmaster Help.

Update: Yep, it is even impacting this site, where this was published about 15+ minutes ago and this story or other stories here are not in Google's index, which is unusual.

Here is a screen shot of filtering any content from this site for the past hour in Google web search (click to enlarge the screen shot):

click for full size

Here is a screen shot of filtering any content from this site for the past hour in Google News search (click to enlarge the screen shot):

click for full size

Update 2: People are asking me if their indexing issues from days or weeks or months ago are related to this, it is not. John Mueller of Google confirmed so:

Update 3: At around 10am EDT, it seems like the URL inspection tool is somewhat working now. Still, I do not see new content from this site indexed yet...

click for full size

Update: 4:At around 11:40am EDT, Google posted this update, but it seems the indexing issues are not fixed, just the URL inspection tool:

Update 5: At 4pm EDT the indexing issue is still not resolved, here are some screen shots:

Update 6: Friday, August 9th, early morning, it seems Google has begun resolving the indexing issues.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More - YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 18, 2024

Mar 18, 2024 - 4:00 pm
Google Updates

Google Urges Patience As The March 2024 Core Update Continues To Rollout

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google

Official: Google Replaces Perspective Filter With Forums Filter

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:41 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Now Offers Additional Review After Appeal Is Denied

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

EU Searchers Complaining About Google Maps Features Changes Related To DMA

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:21 am
Google

Google Showing Fewer Sitelinks Within Search

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Black & White Room At Google