That Massive Google Update Was Glitch & Bug - Search Results Back To Normal

Aug 11, 2020 - 7:11 am 54 by
Filed Under Google Updates

Glitch Google

Yesterday afternoon I reported on one of the biggest Google updates we have seen in a long time. It was so big and the results were so all over the place, many suspected it was a bug. And a bug it was. A Google spokesperson confirmed with me over email last night " I confirmed with the team that this is a bug that we are fixing but still in the process of fully diagnosing, so we don't have specific details to share right now."

Later, John Mueller of Google shared a similar message on Twitter saying "I don't have all the details yet, but it seems like this was a glitch on our side and has been fixed in the meantime." So Google confirmed it was a bug and said it "has been fixed." Here is that tweet where he replied to my report:

Just wow. Google told me the company will be giving me more details on what happened and if they do, I will share that with you all.

But things do look to be back to normal as of this morning. Here are some quotes from folks that confirmed it went back to normal:

The Timeline

Based on reviewing the SEO chatter on social media, at WebmasterWorld, at Black Hat World and the comments here, it seems things reverted back at around 11:30pm ET on August 10th.

The timeline: So this started as early as 1:30pm ET on August 10th, spiked significantly around 5pm on August 10th and then was reverted at around 11:30pm on August 10th.

Here are more quotes:

Well it didn't last long 11 to 12pm I was down to -14%. Now things look like they are back to normal.

Crazy results for a while. Appears to be back to normal again.

I'm seeing my site back to its original position on the SERP. Seems like it really is a glitch.

Add me to the list of people who saw +100% last night briefly and felt happy again that Google finally got one right. Of course it's a glitch. There is no happiness in this business.

Looks like this was the case, my traffic has bounced back to normal on my analytics from what I can tell after it all dropping drastically for a few hours.

My site is back, and I even got more traffic than the day before. Phew!

If you want to have fun just check out my original post with all the comments about the sky falling. It was insane and I am really concerned about how something like this could have happened. I know bugs, glitches, etc happen but wow.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.

Update: Now Google said it was an "indexing issue" that caused this? This did not look like any of the previous indexing issues but what do I know?

And now more on this from Gary:

Update 2: Here is what went wrong, at least, what we were told.

 

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