Google Search had an issue with displaying video-related content in the search results. Google Search Console confirmed it had a bug with Google Search specific to video traffic in the performance report between May 4th and May 17th. Google seems to have resolved the issue going forward but your reports between May 4 and May 17 might show lower than normal because of this bug. Google's John Mueller told us later this was not just a reporting bug, meaning, this may have impacted your true video traffic from Google Search.
Google posted the issue over here and wrote, "A bug caused a drop in video traffic from May 4 to May 17, and has since been resolved."
To be clear, Google told us later this was not a reporting bug but rather a bug with Google Search.
You can see the notice yourself by going to Google Search Console, going to the search performance report, then filtering by video type. Then it should load the results with a notification in the chart on May 4th:
Glenn Gabe also noticed this and is also curious if this is just a reporting glitch or if this had a real impact on traffic:
Also worth noting there was a spike in position during that timeframe when the bug impacted things. I'm assuming this was just a reporting issue, but wanted to check. Thx for any info you can offer! :) pic.twitter.com/YOnkVYhrKo
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 24, 2023
So check your reports, you may see some weird data, especially if you get a lot of video traffic from Google Search.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Update: John Mueller of Google got back to me to say it is not just reporting. He said on Mastodon, "It was not just reporting (we try to specifically mention that)."
Got it, thanks for the reply! So the bug led to a rankings change during that timeframe? Just want to make sure I communicate that properly to clients. Thanks John!
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 24, 2023
