The Google Search Status Dashboard is an official page, launched in 2022, where Google reports the current status of Search systems. It lists announced ranking updates, such as core and spam updates, with start and completion dates, and known incidents affecting crawling, indexing or serving. It is the first place to check when rankings or indexing change suddenly across a site.
What it shows
The dashboard is organized by system, with a history of past events.
- Crawling: problems with Googlebot fetching pages
- Indexing: delays or failures in adding pages to the index
- Serving: issues showing results to users
- Ranking: announced updates with rollout start and end dates
How to use it in diagnosis
When a site sees a sudden drop or a spike in errors, check the dashboard before changing anything. If there is an ongoing indexing incident, missing pages may come back once it is resolved. If a core update is rolling out, wait for it to finish before measuring. Keep a shared log of update dates next to your own release dates so you can tell them apart later.
What it does not show
The dashboard lists announced updates and widespread incidents. It does not list the many small, unannounced changes Google makes, and it says nothing about individual sites. A drop with no matching event is more likely to have a site-specific cause.
Example
An indexing scare that resolved itself
The content team at Vaultember notices new blog posts are not being indexed for several days. Before rebuilding the sitemap, they check the dashboard and find a reported indexing incident. They note it, wait, and see the posts indexed after Google marks the incident resolved.
Common mistakes
Measuring an update before it ends
Rollouts can take up to two weeks. Compare periods after the dashboard shows the update as complete.
Questions
The dashboard offers an RSS feed, and Google also posts updates on its Search Central channels.
