Confirmed: Google Search Index Bug Removed 4% of Pages from SERPs

Confirmed: Google De-indexing Bug Removed 4% of Pages

There has been a lot of SEO chatter about a possible Google algorithm update lately. Early last Friday, SEOs started noticing their sites dropping off SERPs, with no explanation. Initially, some thought it was a false alarm, but it quickly became a real headache. Search engine volatility reports showed a huge surge in Google activity. We have learned that Google encountered a bug in their Index algorithm that caused about 4% of all pages to become de-indexed, meaning a lot of pages were removed from the search engine. Naturally, this caused ranking fluctuations for everyone, whether directly affected or not.
From Search Engine Round Table:
“On Friday we reported on an issue where SEOs began noticing that Google was removing tons of pages from their index. It seemed to have started on Thursday but Google did not confirm the issue until Saturday morning. The issue is now into day four or so and it is not yet fully resolved. In short, some sites were seeing a nice chunk of their web pages being de-indexed, removed from the Google index, and thus not showing up in the Google search results.”
Google CONFIRMED (kinda rare for them to confirm something algorithm-related) that a glitch in their algorithm caused some pages to be de-indexed and removed from search results. As of yesterday, they believe that the issue has been fully resolved. Although, SEOs are still scratching their heads. For some, the issue is still affecting their sites, and have lost a lot of traffic because of it.
Google Confirmed Index Bug
What this means for Dental Revenue Clients:
We have been actively reviewing Search Console properties and other tools for any de-indexing issues. We have not seen major de-indexing effects for any of our clients as of yet. You might have seen a drop in web traffic from April 5th through April 11th. Although the issue has been resolved, it does not mean that all rankings are back to normal.
In any case, and with any major changes in Google Search algorithms, it is a temporary issue, and we are confident that rankings should return to normal trends in the coming days. Reach out to your Dental Revenue account manager with questions. We are fully aware of the situation and ready to report specifics to ease your concerns.