Google confirmed a search ranking bug over the weekend, affecting a “small number of websites” where the rankings would drop out of Google Search results and then reappear during the weekdays. This bug was limited to particular websites but caused significant issues for those affected.
The issue was primarily observed on non-standard, vanity top-level domains (TLDs) such as .club, .consulting, .life, and others. Reports showed that websites on these TLDs completely lost rankings and traffic over the weekends. This issue was initially thought to be a quality problem or a bug with Google Search, but further investigation revealed it was a bug specifically with Google Search.
The first person to cover this issue was Tomasz Rudzki at ZipTie, who reported that websites were losing rankings and traffic over the weekends. Notably, these ranking issues coincided with several unconfirmed Google updates that occurred during the same period. Rudzki’s findings revealed that all affected websites were on non-standard TLDs, and the dates of the ranking issues aligned with reported algorithm updates.
A sample ranking chart provided in the article shows a significant drop in performance from organic Google Search over the weekends, further indicating the impact of the bug on affected websites.
In response to this bug, a Google spokesperson confirmed that the issue had been resolved and assured that the affected websites should no longer experience its effects. This bug has been ongoing since November 2023, but after recent reports, Google has taken steps to resolve it. Websites on non-standard TLDs that noticed weekend ranking issues may have been impacted by this bug.
For website owners who noticed unusual ranking changes over the weekends, particularly those with non-standard TLDs, it is advised to monitor their rankings closely to ensure the issue does not persist. As recent reports have shown a decrease in these weekend search ranking updates, it is hoped that this bug has been resolved and will not reoccur in the future.
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