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Its December and Another Bug Hits Google – Discover Reporting Impacted This Time

[ Back to News Page ] Dated: 17-Dec-2019

Last part of 2019 seems to be a bug feast at Google for some reason. Yes, December 2019 brings about another Google Bug that most noticeably hit Google Discover Reporting. Between December 8 and 13, this recent Google Search Console bug affected reporting.

Like most times, Google has also acknowledged this recent bug that came about in December of 2019. This took place within performance reports in Google Search Console and had its impact on reporting around Google Discover traffic. Like that one before in November, this one also seems to affect only the reporting part and not the actual working and operations.

When It Hit

From December 8th to December 13th, Google Discover impressions and clicks may have not been reported accurately. Google acknowledged the matter by admitting that it was an internal issue that may have caused performance reporting for Discover to show a substantial drop in value between these mentioned dates. This is of course a sigh of relief for webmasters who might have thought their efforts producing less results.

Google Said It Is Now Fixed

According to an official statement by Google on Monday, 16th of December, the issue has been resolved. However, Google also pointed out that the data might have been lost and true Discover values for this mentioned timeframe would not be available. Yet, they also said that after the 13th, there will no longer be this problem of false Discover reporting. Talk about Friday the 13th being an unlucky day. Even Google is feeling its effects!

No Impact on Actual Performance

This latest bug may have affected reporting values but there was no real impact on the actual site performance. This was again only a reporting glitch. Google emphasized on there being no impact on site performance at all. Users didn’t face any changes in your site and the only problem there was, had to do with reporting side of things. All sites operated and performed under normal circumstances at all times during the affected period as well.

Google Discover for Users

Google Feed is also termed as Google Discover that shows users’ topics and news based on their interests. Google Discover provides information about user’s interests including products or servicers searched previously. Sports teams, news sites, product suggestions and more are highlighted in Discover without users having to search for them. This feed shows on Google’s Mobile App as well as Mobile Home Page and also in Google Chrome on the homepage from desktop. This interest capitalization is based on AI and takes into account search history of users.

Google Discover Reporting

In April 2019, Google added reporting for the Google Discover Traffic to Google Search Console. This is the only way for webmasters to track Google Discover Traffic as of now. Google keeps referrer data to themselves that helps differentiate site traffic. Webmasters have to rely on Google Search Console data in order to tell apart their Google Discover traffic at all times.

Why Should You Care?

Sites get traffic from Google Discover. Some more than others. If you site is featured in Google Feed and gets a lot of traffic from there, there is no need to worry even if there was a significant drop in traffic from there. The latest reporting bug may have caused the dip in figures without there being an actual drop in traffic. Using overall traffic tracking tools like Google Analytics or any others you base your campaigns on can reveal the actual value. Only that, between 8 and 13 December, there was a reporting glitch that showed less traffic through Google Discover in Google Search Console.