Reports of Google Dropping Pages Out of Index... possibly a bug?

"Main search results now fully fixed," per Google, but new problems in GSC Reporting.

[Robert Charlton]

Just a note that Barry, on seroundtable, is citing widespread reports of Google dropping pages out of the search index; and though there's no official word yet from Google, it appears to be a bug....
[webmasterworld.com...]

Google Is Dropping Pages Out Of The Search Index; A Bug?
Apr 5, 2019 • 7:48 am
by Barry Schwartz
[seroundtable.com...]

Something weird is going on with the Google search index. I am seeing wide spread reports of SEOs and webmasters complaining that their URLs and web pages are being removed from the Google Index. Lots of folks are noticing that a nice percentage of their web sites are no longer coming up for a site command or showing in Search Console as being indexed.

Sources include our April Google Updates and SERPs thread [webmasterworld.com...]

[swright]

It's not been resolved whatever John Mueller says. Lots of people have been reporting the same issue after he tweeted this.

[Robert Charlton]

swright - Thanks.... In his Twitter announcement, JohnMu noted...

this should be resolved in the meantime, and the affected URLs reprocessed

As I understand the structure of Google, the multiple databases are so large that certain processes need to be completed before things can be turned around, so I assume that whatever was in the pipeline when they discovered the problem may need to appear in the serps before the corrections can take place. In any case, I'm hoping John was correct.

This is the first time I've ever posted "RESOLVED" on a bug thread in WebmasterWorld, and I did so to relieve general anxiety. Let's hope I wasn't being optimistic.

[swright]

Yes, I see that actually JM said that it should be resolved, not that it was resolved. Let's hope it happens soon. I think in the meantime it would be helpful if people keep reporting if they have any issues. From the post on SE Roundtable, it appears that JohnMu wasn't aware of the deindexing issue before some people on Twitter raised it. Possibly someone at G was already aware of it and would have fixed it anyway, but you never know what's actually going on.

[Spiekerooger]

As of today 2019-04-07, 0625 GMT, it does not seem resolved.

[sofie77]

I agree, problem NOT solved on all DCs. There is something going on again with this issue. I hope its fixed soon when the replication is done.

[StupidIntelligent]

It is not resolved as of this post.

[thepointer]

It is for sure not resolved. I have one article that Google is refusing to show no matter how many times I submit it to the index. Search Console says it's in the index but doing a site: says otherwise.

[broccoli]

I seem to be getting different results every time I look today. I had another couple of pages appear to drop out but when I looked again they were there, despite not requesting a reindex in GSC. I wonder if I'm hitting different data centers.

[lee_sufc]

I have this problem, too. About 30% of my pages show as fine on Search Console but have vanished from SERPs. Typically, these pages are my "main" selling pages!

I've tried resubmitting but no luck as yet.

[Jez123]

I've tried resubmitting but no luck as yet.

Mine was OK with the resubmit but now it does nothing. Same as you, my main selling page!

[lee_sufc]

I'm wondering if I should resubmit all affected pages or just hang tight and HOPE Google fixes the problem soon? I can handle the odd fluctuation in SERPs with usual updates but this is light a lightning bolt to my business!

[doodoofan]

I've tried resubmitting but no luck as yet.

I've resubmitted the pages that were deindexed and they reappeared in Google within minutes.

[lee_sufc]

@doodoofan - i've done one page but didn't know whether to try again?

[broccoli]

Keep resubmitting. John Mueller said they’re still reprocessing pages and it’s fine to use the inspect url tool in GSC.

[lee_sufc]

Thanks, broccoli. Can I ask where you're reading what John Mueller is saying? I've tried his Twitter Page but no luck.

[broccoli]

If you look in his replies he says so here [twitter.com...]

[sk7411]

Danny’s update is here :

[twitter.com...]

How casual :(

[lee_sufc]

so frustrating. I've managed to get a few pages back, however, my two key pages will not return (I've re-submitted 3-4 times during the day but am hesitant to keep doing it in case Google thinks I'm up to something dodgy!)

[broccoli]

I wouldn’t worry about that, people abuse the heck out of the indexing tool, that’s why it’s rate limited. They’re not going to bother about you trying to reindex your page a couple of dozen times.

It’s possible there’s just a very long queue of pages that they need to get to now. People must have started noticing something is going on!

[Robert Charlton]

sk7411, thanks for the link to Danny's Twitter post, which is still his only statement on the situation. For the record, I'm linking to it again and also quoting his message, which was posted roughly 9-hrs ago...
[twitter.com...]

We're aware of indexing issues that
impacted some sites beginning on Friday.
We believe the issues are mostly resolved
and don't require any special efforts on the
part of site owners. We'll provide another
update when the issues are considered fully
resolved.

[doodoofan]

@lee_sufc: The first time I tried to reindex one of my pages it didn't work (it still didn't show up on Google), so I tried again and it reappeared as top result right away. So I think you should request reindexing multiple times until it works.

[lee_sufc]

Thanks for the Twitter link and other advice - this morning (UK) I seem to have a few more pages one. Infuriatingly, one of my top hitting pages is still invisible. I'll give it another day and then try resubmitting again.

[DecDub]

@lee_sufc: Morning from Dublin, I'm in the same vote as you are, a slight improvement with some pages bouncing back but still some of the top pages missing in action. Hopefully in a few days all this settles down.

[Robert Charlton]

Thanks to Barry, for his further collation on SEL of updated comments, with more in his article....

Google’s de-indexing issue still not fully resolved but Google is working on it
Barry Schwartz - April 7, 2019
[searchengineland.com...]

"Not fixed yet - but Google is working on it and has been communicating better about the issue."

Barry wrote...

Yesterday Google said it fully resolved the de-indexing issue that started on Thursday afternoon. But now Google is saying it is not fully resolved just yet and Google is still working on reprocessing a lot of the URLs that were delisted from their index on Friday. Google suspects the issue should be resolved shortly and will provide another update when Google know it is fully resolved.

And Barry also noted... my emphasis added...

John also said that you can use the Inspect URL and Submit to index feature in Google Search Console to expedite indexing of specific pages. He added that even when it is fully resolved that you may not see all your pages in Google’s index because Google doesn’t always list 100% of a site’s pages in their index.

And, Barry later added in this quote from JohnMu on Twitter, posted on Sunday....

"Awesome sites with minimal duplication help us recognize the value of indexing more of your pages."

[Ebuzz]

My home page of one of my sites is missing from Google even right now, but other pages are still there.

Hence, I am seeing a 20-30% traffic loss. And I noticed this drop starting April 5.

Terrible.

Ever since April 1, it is like Google lost its marbles or something. Even Adsense has been massively down since April 1.

[broccoli]

I wonder whether it was an accidental database problem or whether they were trying to deindex certain types of pages and it went horribly wrong.

[engine]

This is very embarrassing for Google, imho, as it's very public., and it appears to be hitting legitimate sites.
I wonder how AdSense publishers are fairing.

[tangor]

The more they tweak, the more we eke. :)

Some bright bulb thought "this" might be a good thing ... only they didn't think it through.

That said, we still don't know what the heck bright bulb wanted to accomplish! (The black box remains opaque!)

[prica]

checked a lot of domains and there isn't any site or URL with cache date younger than 31.03.2018 - part of the bug?

[ichthyous]

Well, my major landing pages returned back to where they were after vanishing for two days. It's nerve wracking to say the least. Considering the constant downward trend since September of last year I'm ready to believe that my site is just about to go into a free-fall at any moment. In the last month or so in particular there has been very low traffic to my site, traffic from my most important international sources has slowly dropped by 20-40% since January, and not many calls or emails except for the day this update started when I saw a big surge in calls and emails.

I feel like I dodged a bullet this weekend, but when top three SERP placement and #1 placement in local pack return so little traffic these days you know that the days of depending on Google for referrals are over. I have actively started diversifying away from search since the beginning of this year, but so far it's very expensive and not a good ROI at all. I was blessed to have so much business from Google over the years...the alternatives I have tried so far have been a waste of money every month.

[edited by: ichthyous at 8:04 pm (utc) on Apr 8, 2019]