• Search Engine Land
  • Sections
    • SEO
    • SEM
    • Local
    • Retail
    • Google
    • Bing
    • Social
    • Resources
    • More
    • Home
  • Follow Us
    • Follow
  • Search Engine Land
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social
  • Resources
  • Live
  • More
  • Events
    • Follow
  • SUBSCRIBE

Search Engine Land

Search Engine Land
  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social
  • Resources
  • More
  • Newsletters
  • Home
SEO

Google confirms indexing issues with both canonicalization and mobile-indexing

Google said it is fixing the issue and there is no action you need to take.

Barry Schwartz on October 1, 2020 at 7:29 pm
  • More

If you have been following our newsletter, you would have seen us reporting on unconfirmed cases of indexing issues around URLs that seem to be dropping out of the Google index. We suspected canonicalization issues with Google and we were right, partially. Google said not only are there canonicalization issues but also issues with mobile-indexing.

It is believed that this started sometime around September 22 or 23. That’s when the SEO community began noticing big changes to the search results.

Google’s confirmation. Google said on Twitter via the Search Liaison account, “we are currently working to resolve two separate indexing issues that have impacted some URLs. One is with mobile-indexing. The other is with canonicalization, how we detect and handle duplicate content. In either of these two cases, pages might not be indexed.”

Mobile-indexing issue. Google explained that in some cases it was not indexing pages “if a previously indexed page has gone, it might be the mobile-indexing issue, where we’re failing to select any page at all to index.”

Canonicalization issue. Google also added that it may not index pages “if the canonical issue is involved, URL Inspector may show the URL as a duplicate & the Google-selected canonical will be different from it.” I posted numerous examples of this over here on the Search Engine Roundtable and Google even asked for examples earlier this week.

In short, it looked like in some cases, Google was showing a completely wrong URL for a page or not showing that page at all in its index.

What can you do? Nothing. Google said it will take care of the issue. Google wrote “there’s no action to take with these issues on the part of site owners. So wait it out and hopefully Google will resolve it soon. But this has been lingering on for the past 8-days or so. “We apologize for the issues here and are working rapidly to resolve them. We’ll update this thread as each is corrected,” Google said.

The thread: Here is the thread on Twitter:

We are currently working to resolve two separate indexing issues that have impacted some URLs. One is with mobile-indexing. The other is with canonicalization, how we detect and handle duplicate content. In either case, pages might not be indexed….

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) October 1, 2020

There’s no action to take with these issues on the part of site owners. We apologize for the issues here and are working rapidly to resolve them. We’ll update this thread as each is corrected.

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) October 1, 2020

Why we care. Many of you have been scratching your heads since September 23rd around these changes in Google search. Now you know, it may have just been a bug with Google and your rankings and traffic will hopefully return when Google resolves the issue.

It can be that your site was impacted by something else and your rankings will not return but at least you know there was some sort of bug on Google’s end around that date.

Postscript. Google has given us an update on these issues. Google said “it may take days to fully resolve both these issues completely, but we have restored many URLs already and are working quickly to process more.”

Google gave us some figures, specifically that the issue with canonicals impacted roughly about 0.02% of the Google index, beginning around September 20th, which is earlier than we expected. It lasted until late October 1st around 4:30pm PT. Google said it has since restored about 10% of those URLs and keep reprocessing more.

With the mobile-indexing issue, Google said it impacted roughly about 0.2% of its index, beginning in early September “but really spiking from around the middle of this week through late yesterday,” Google said. Google said it has since restored about 1/4 of those URLs & keep reprocessing more.

Postscript 2. Google posted another progress update on this fix, saying “we’ve now restored about 25% of the URLs impacted by the canonical issue and about 50% of those impacted by the mobile-indexing issue. We continue to keep reprocessing more.”

Postscript 3. Google said the issues were 99% resolved by October 14, 2020 and the remaining edge cases should be resolved in the next couple of weeks.



About The Author

Barry Schwartz
Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

Related Topics

Channel: SEOGoogle: SEOGoogle: Web Search

We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or our LinkedIn Group.

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

Lorem ipsum doler this is promo text about SMX events.

February 23, 2021: SMX Report

April 13, 2021: SMX Create

May 18-19, 2021: SMX London

June 8-9, 2021: SMX Paris

June 15-16, 2021: SMX Advanced

August 17, 2021: SMX Convert

November 9-10, 2021: SMX Next

October 2021: SMX Advanced Europe

December 17, 2021: SMX Code

Available On-Demand: SMX

×


Learn More About Our SMX Events

Discover actionable tactics that can help you overcome crucial marketing challenges. Our next conference will be held:

MarTech 2021: March 16-17

MarTech 2021: Sept. 14-15

MarTech 2020: Watch On-Demand

×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

White Papers

  • The State of Local Marketing Report 2020-2021
  • Quality CRM Data: The Key to Delivering Great Customer Experiences
  • How the Microsoft Search Network Can Maximize Your Search Campaigns
  • The Marketer’s Playbook for Customer Acquisition
  • How To Optimize SEO With UGC
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • How to Avoid the Digital Transformation Trap
  • How to Build a Marketing System of Record
  • Meet BIMI: The brand-boosting email security marketers must have for 2021
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • Local Marketing Solutions for Multi-Location Businesses
  • Enterprise Digital Asset Management Platforms
  • Identity Resolution Platforms
  • Customer Data Platforms
  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
See More Research

h
Receive daily search news and analysis.
Search Engine Land
Download the Search Engine Land App on iTunes Download the Search Engine Land App on Google Play

Channels

  • SEO
  • SEM
  • Local
  • Retail
  • Google
  • Bing
  • Social

Our Events

  • SMX
  • MarTech

Resources

  • White Papers
  • Research
  • Webinars
  • Search Marketing Expo
  • MarTech Conference

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff
  • Connect With Us

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Youtube
  • iOS App
  • Google Play

© 2021 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Your privacy means the world to us. We share your personal information only when you give us explicit permission to do so, and confirm we have your permission each time. Learn more by viewing our privacy policy.Ok