2

I am using google webmaster to monitor maintain my site regarding SEO aspects. My site suffered a huge amount of index drop during last few months.

I understand why I am loosing indexed pages and it is not the problem I have now. In the google index status chart, I noticed I had the same number of pages indexed for passed 5 weeks. We came to the conclusion that the drop is stabilized now.

enter image description here

But on a recent day It seems google have updated all 5 of index status points in the graph. You can observe that not a one point but several points are updated.

history adjusted graph

How is this possible? Does google do this more often? Is it risky to take decitions by looking at google index status chart as they update several (5 here) history points in the chart?

Note : I have observed google updating the latest previous update before. But this seems different.

Improve this question
7
  • Google Webmaster Tools is often several days behind on some if not all metrics and occasionally it will stop entirely for a longer period then update suddenly. I have seen as much as nearly a month, though that is rare. Often, it can be weeks. Also, keep in mind that some metrics will be up to date while others are not. Does that seem to match your experience? As far as updates to how G handles metrics, this can be disrupting too. Cheers!!
    – closetnoc
    Nov 28, 2016 at 5:29
  • @closetnoc yes that is exactly what I am experiencing. Thank you for your info. I was very surprised when I saw it.
    – Prabhath
    Nov 28, 2016 at 5:32
  • It is frustrating! Especially when you give a rats patootie about your site and how it is doing. These lag times do not help. To defend G a bit, that is a butt load of data to handle so I am not surprised that things go kaplooie from time to time. My hats off to G for even trying. If I owned a search engine, I am not sure I would work that hard! We should all be grateful that G does at least try. Cheers!!
    – closetnoc
    Nov 28, 2016 at 5:39
  • @closetnoc agreed. I also think google does an remarkable job considering the amount of data they have to handle.
    – Prabhath
    Nov 28, 2016 at 6:15
  • @Prabhath Most important question is: How many pages should the index contain? In many cases people are better off with less pages. Do you have an exact idea how many pages your site has or what kind of pages have been dropped from the index? There might have been quite some pages of bad quality, e.g.
    – schwarzbrot
    Nov 28, 2016 at 8:38

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

I'm afraid, data delivery in the search console lagging behind for some days is always to be expected, although it's not the general case.

Also, it is a little bit of a special case at the moment: Google has been working on updates on the search console for some weeks (see e.g. this Page in Google's help pages: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6211453#indexed).

There have also been known glitches in the data as well (as stated by Google's John Mueller, see here: https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/796084640561905668). As always, updates may not go without difficulties and Google is no exception to that rule ;-)

For purposes as yours, I find it generally useful to use XML sitemaps at least as additional source of information.

You may, for example, set up multiple XML sitemaps for different kinds of pages and submit them in the search console in order to get more exact information about what part of your website is indexed and what part is not or partial.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.