Google has accepted and confirmed that some websites have been experiencing indexing delays since last Monday. The ongoing problem has resulted in search engine index slowing down the indexing process for certain websites. On Thursday morning February 1, Google reported that it was investigating the indexing issue.

On Saturday, February 3, Google reported that the indexing issue had been mitigated, and their system was stable, but they were still working on a fix. The next update was scheduled within the next 48 hours i.e. on Monday, February 5.

Google has admitted that “some” websites are taking longer for their search engine to index due to an ongoing issue with indexing.

The problem started on Monday, January 31, at around 11.20 ET. Several content creators, website publishers, and News agencies reported that indexing issues cropped up on Google search results on indexing of their freshly published news content.

On Thursday, February 1, Google, in its update, said that they were working on identifying the root cause and the next update would be in the next 12 hours.

The confirmation came after many web administrators and SEO professionals reported and complained about their latest content not getting indexed.

A common problem reported was that despite getting initial signals about clicks and impressions in the Google search console, the content did not get indexed. With Google confirming the issue officially, the publishers who were affected were assured that they were not the only ones getting affected.

Even though Google pointed out that only a few websites were affected, the publishers were frustrated at the delay in indexing and the subsequent effect on traffic and revenue.

The details of why this issue has happened are still awaited. Google said that its engineering team was investigating the root cause and effort to resolve the issue quickly.

Past Precedent 

Google encountered a similar issue in December 2023. Google announced delayed indexing on Google Search on December 21, 2023. Although the issue initially seemed to affect areas, it was discovered to affect different websites.

Recognizing the impact

The consequences of delayed content indexing can be severe for website owners, especially those that depend significantly on organic traffic from Google Search. Your material may become less visible and receive less organic search traffic if it is not promptly indexed. It is significant to distinguish this indexing difficulty from more general indexing and ranking issues that could emerge from algorithm modifications. If you have been having problems with indexing and ranking for a while, it probably has little to do with the current circumstances.

If delayed indexing affects a website, what should its owners do?

The best course of action is to be patient if you see delayed indexing for your website. Google has admitted to the problem and is addressing it head-on. A resolution might arrive even sooner than the twelve hours they promised to provide an update. The only thing website owners can do is keep an eye on the situation.