Google Search Working On Fixing Indexing Issue

Feb 1, 2024 - 5:37 am 339 by
Filed Under Google

Google Robot Newspaper Bench Fire

Google has confirmed it is working on resolving an indexing issue that it says is "affecting a small number of sites." Google said that some "sites may experience slower than usual indexing times." The search company is looking to "identifying the root cause" and hopes to fix the issue soon.

The indexing issue seems to have started about 5-6 hours ago, around 11:30pm ET on Wednesday, January 31st. There are tons of complaints from content publishers and news publishers that their content has not been indexed.

Google posted an update over here at 4:42 am ET this morning saying:

We're investigating an issue with indexing in Google Search that's affecting a small number of sites. Sites may experience slower than usual indexing times. We're working on identifying the root cause. Next update will be within 12 hours.

If you are noticing issues with your content being indexed and showing up in Google Search over the past several hours, you are not alone. Google is working on fixing the issue.

Google's Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, did reply to at least one of those concerns as well:

Here are some of the complaints:

Update: Google posted an update at 11:10 am ET saying, "We've identified the issue with indexing, and we're working on a fix. Next update will be within 12 hours."

Forum discussion at X.

Update 2: Still not fixed at 5:30 am ET on Friday, February 2nd:

Update 3: Google posted an update at 2:31pm ET saying, "The issue with indexing has been mitigated and our systems are becoming stable, but we're still working on a fix. Next update will be within 12 hours."

Update 4: Now at three full days and still not fully fixed:

Update 5: Now over four days later, still not fully resolved:

Update 6: Gary Illyes from Google commented on LinkedIn saying "some things take a long time to get fixed properly Β―\_(ツ)_/Β―. "Mitigated" means there's no outside-visible impact anymore. We keep it in this state until it's properly fixed in case something regresses, so we don't have to open a new incident."

Update 7: Now things are "stable" but a fix is still in the works:

Update: 7.5 days later, now fully resolved:

Update: In June, the Google Search team talked a bit about this issue:

 

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