Google's John Mueller kind of downplayed the importance of the freshness of the Google Search Console page indexing report. He said on Reddit, in response to my coverage of the report's recent slowness, that "it can feel like it's important to focus on it, but honestly, save your energy."
John wrote "Indexing doesn't change quickly, and when it does, you see that reflected in the performance reports first."
He then commented on my reporting (Hi John) saying:
I don't think it makes sense for me / us to comment on the data freshness for all reports all the time, this is why we put dates in there. I realize Barry & co (hi!) write about everything and it can feel like it's important to focus on it, but honestly, save your energy. Complex systems are complex, and we prioritize faster updates there where we think it's actually useful for folks.
Do you think having a fresh indexing report in Search Console is important? I mean, it seems to drive SEOs crazy when it is delayed, especially those who are trying to ensure their new section of content is being indexed properly by Google...
Here is the original post on Reddit:
I am wondering if anyone else is experiencing major delays in Google Search Console right now. my Page Indexing report is completely frozen. The last update was on October 16th, and there have been zero changes or new data points since. The graph just flatlines.(see screenshot below)
I know GSC reporting delays are a common pain point, but a stall this long feels unusual. I've seen John Mueller and Barry Schwartz discuss GSC indexing/reporting quirks before, so I figured I'd ask here to see if this is a widespread issue or just something specific to my properties right now.
A few questions for the community:
- Is your Page Indexing report updating normally for your accounts?
- I am also curious that are you experts seeing delays across all GSC reports, or just the indexing data?
- Any known workarounds, or are we just stuck waiting for Google to fix the pipeline?
I would love to hear if other SEOs are seeing this exact same freeze so we can figure out if it's a bug on Google's end. Thanks!
Here is his screenshot:
Here is John's full response:
It looks like you have a relatively new site and the numbers have been relatively stable. What are you expecting to see in refreshed data? Indexing doesn't change quickly, and when it does, you see that reflected in the performance reports first.I don't think it makes sense for me / us to comment on the data freshness for all reports all the time, this is why we put dates in there. I realize Barry & co (hi!) write about everything and it can feel like it's important to focus on it, but honestly, save your energy. Complex systems are complex, and we prioritize faster updates there where we think it's actually useful for folks.
If you search for "qHt8WP_euoY" you should find an older video on this topic (who needs URLs when you can search for IDs :-)).
Forum discussion at Reddit.
