Google Search is one of the most powerful tools on the web for getting new content in the hands of a wide audience, but that relies on a process known as indexing. On April 21, 2020, a Google Search error is causing new web pages and articles from being properly indexed.
For the past couple of hours, Google Search hasn’t indexed new pages. This includes both new web pages, but also news articles from publications such as ourselves, the Wall Street Journal, and SearchEngineLand who first highlighted this problem. For sites that rely on new content being published, this can mean a major hit in traffic.
It’s unclear how long this has been affecting sites — it’s been at least a couple of hours based on our quick research — but it’s good to know that Google is at least aware.
Danny Sullivan, Google’s public Search liaison has confirmed he’s passed on notifications of the situation to those who can fix it. We’re already started to see some pages being indexed again, so it’s possible the fix is already starting.
https://twitter.com/dannysullivan/status/1252679492297830400
Notably, this isn’t the first time this has happened. Back in August, an outage exactly like this occurred, but it went on for several hours before being fixed. Hopefully, that won’t be the case for this latest Google Search indexing error in April.
More on Google Search:
- Google Search has stopped indexing new pages for many of the web’s largest sites
- Google Search now lists coronavirus testing locations near you
- Google Search highlighting what time cities clap for coronavirus helpers
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