Both Google Search and Google Analytics have experienced indexing issues, and both services have been unavailable to users worldwide for several hours.
Prior to this morning at 7 a.m. ET, Google Search has a confirmed indexing problem. Even when I use the exact title or a site command to search for one of the articles I posted this morning on this site, nothing has yet to appear in Google Search. Since this morning, Google has stopped indexing newly published content. The search engine has “an ongoing issue with indexing in Google Search that’s affecting a large number of sites,” according to a later statement from Google to the Search Engine Roundtable.
On July 15, 2022, it appears that Google had an indexing outage for about ten hours before it started to get better at 4 pm ET.
As of this morning, Google is not displaying any new content in Google News or Google Search.
Table of Contents
Timeline
- Due to a Google bug, new content was not indexed by Google before 7 am ET.
- 10:50 am ET Google acknowledged the indexing issue.
- 3:00 pm ET Google has found the problem and is developing a solution.
- 4 pm ET The Google Search index is beginning to incorporate new content.
Details Regarding Google’s Indexing Issues on July 15
Google Search has not recently displayed any new content from The Wall Street Journal. The Verge, the New York Times, and other news websites that regularly publish new articles are not either.
Here are some screenshots that show no new content is being displayed from these sites using site commands that limit news to the previous hour. Click on the images to view them larger. To test this, filter the Google results to only display articles from the previous hour.
Just a quick note: Universal Analytics 3 appears to be working fine, but real-time analytics in GA4 also appears to be broken. Therefore, bear that in mind as you review your analytics.
Google reported that they discovered the problem at 3 PM and are currently working on a fix:
Google has acknowledged having indexing problems, but the company has not commented on its Google Analytics.
There’s an ongoing issue with indexing in Google Search that’s affecting a large number of sites. Sites may experience delayed indexing. We’re working on identifying the root cause. Next update will be within 12 hours.
There's an ongoing issue with indexing in Google Search that's affecting a large number of sites. Sites may experience delayed indexing. We're working on identifying the root cause. Next update will be within 12 hours.
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) July 15, 2022
We've identified the issue with indexing and we're working on a fix. Next update will be within 12 hours.
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) July 15, 2022
Google Ads and AdSense are also down.
Additionally, there have been numerous reports of problems with Google Ads advertisers and Google AdSense publishers’ spending and earnings not being recorded for a short period of time. Google does display advertisements on websites, but the income and expenses are not accurately displayed.