On July 15, Google confirmed that there was an issue with its search index that affected a large number of sites The root cause is unknown.
Google says it has identified the issue in Index and is working on a fix.
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
The patch now appears to be rolling as new content is indexed. Here’s a recent post about a bug in Google Ads that had no problem getting indexed by the search engine.
Today, at 10:50 AM ET, Google confirmed that there is an ongoing indexing issue affecting a large number of sites.
The cause of the problem is currently unknown. Google will provide an update within the next 12 hours.
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
What is the extent of the problem and how many sites are affected?
Today’s ongoing issue with Google’s search index appears to only affect new content.
If you post new content today, it likely won’t be flagged until the issue is resolved.
You can check for yourself by searching for ‘site:’ and filtering the results by day or time.
According to Search Engine Journal today and none of them have been indexed yet, as you can see in the screenshot below:
These are the details we know so far.
It is not known when the problem started, although we can narrow it down to a time window of the last 4 hours based on when new content was recently added to the index. This means that Google probably stopped adding new pages to the index around 7 am ET.
The topic affects how many sites, as far as we know, everyone. Or at least all sites that post new content today.
If you have not added new pages to your site and do not intend to do so, then you have nothing to worry about
These indexing issues that affect new content have occurred in the past, and history shows that they don’t extend to existing content.
How will this affect my search engine ranking?
People’s main concern about Google issues is how they will affect search rankings.
To be sure, this topic is limited to an index, not a ranking. This bug will not affect Google search rankings for existing content. New content won’t get a chance to rank without being indexed, though this is only temporary until Google fixes the issue.
Is my content going to be indexed eventually?
Google doesn’t take responsibility for indexing all content even if the systems are running normally, so it’s impossible to tell whether the content you’re publishing today will eventually be indexed.
If Google normally indexes your new pages, it will probably be renewed after the bug is fixed how long will it take Google to fix the problem?
Historically, Google Index bugs take about 24 hours to fix. However, the time frame may be longer or shorter as Google does not provide an estimate.
Google will provide a Twitter update via @GoogleSearchC when it fixes bugs or has more information to share.
Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-confirms-indexing-issue-affecting-large-number-of-sites/457767/#close