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** Update 20 August: Google said the issue had been fixed and there would be no further updates. The bug lasted 4 days and 11 hours.
On 15 August Google confirmed that a Search ranking bug was affecting a large number of search results.
In their announcement Google said the issue had been identified and was unrelated to the August 2024 core update, which started rolling out also on 15 August.
“There's an ongoing issue with ranking in Google Search that's affecting a large number of search results. We've identified the root cause and this issue is unrelated to the ongoing core update rollout. Next update will be within 12 hours.”
In a post on LinkedIn, Google’s John Mueller confirmed the Search ranking bug was ongoing and unconnected to the core update, and apologised for the issue.
“Sometimes we have issues in our systems (like everyone), and we want to be transparent about them for users & site-owners. This issue is unrelated to the core update that's currently rolling out. Unfortunately you can't pick the timing of issues, sorry. We'll update on the search status dashboard as things evolve - both for this issue, as well as for the roll-out of the core update. Isn't there some rule against issues popping up on Fridays? Drats & sorry.”
In subsequent updates on the 16th and 19th, Google said they were still working on the issue and promised further updates.
The core update will take up to a month to roll out, so any changes you see in rankings will probably be unrelated to this and down to the Search ranking bug. It’s worth keeping an eye on Google status updates to check when the bug has been fixed, and if this resolves any immediate issue.
We’ll also update this post with any new information from Google.
