Google Search ranking bug unrelated to the core update

There is a large, confirmed, Google Search ranking bug is affecting a large number of search results today. This is unrelated to the last core update, the August 2024 core update, that was announced yesterday at around 11 am ET.

When. This ranking bug was confirmed at around 2 am ET this morning, Google posted:

More details. “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.”

John Mueller from Google added on LinkedIn“

“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.”

When will it be fixed. Google said it will post updates in its search status report over here.

Why we care. If you are seeing ranking changes for your site over the past 24-hours, it is likely unrelated to the recent August 2024 core update and more related to this search ranking bug. The August 2024 core update will take about a month to roll out, but this search bug should hopefully be fixed in the next 24-hours or so.

So stay tuned and disregard any ranking changes over the past day or so.

Updates. At 12:29 pm ET, Google posted an update that reads, “We’re still working on fixing the issue with ranking. Next update will be within 72 hours.”