Yes, the delays in Google Search Console reporting are such a common occurrence, that hundreds of questions about them arise each and every time they happen, whether we’re talking about rather standard 8-15 hours of delay in general data reporting, or unusual delays of up to 60 hours and up. Is there anything to worry about with the current delays? How does the general data reporting delay differ from the finalized data point delay? Let’s take a look!
- Why Is My Google Search Console Data Not Updating? – The Usual Delays
- What Causes Longer Delays In The Google Search Console Reports?
- Do Search Console Report Delays Signify An Upcoming Algorithm Update?
- Is There Anything To Worry About?
- How Long Does It Take For Google Search Console To Show Data After Adding Your Site?
Why Is My Google Search Console Data Not Updating? – The Usual Delays
There are two kinds of delays when it comes to the data visible in your Google Search Console. The usual delay of Google Search Console data point updates is most of the time one to two days, so 24 to 48 hours. This is the actual delay of reporting the last fully finalized impression/click data points, which is separate from the overall data update delay signified by the “Last updated” indicator on the top right of the GSC interface. The second delay which has to do with the last general data update in your Search Console usually stays at about a few to a dozen of hours.
Typically, the impression/click data point for the last recorded day for your domain will always be labeled as a “partial data point”. What this means, is that this fresh data point doesn’t show you the final click and impression values, and it will get updated over time.
What Causes Longer Delays In The Google Search Console Reports?
There are many different factors that can contribute to a large delay in Google Search Console reporting. These unusual delays are in most cases reported on by Google in their official Google Search Status Dashboard and, or their social media, as you can see on the embedded tweet above.
In many cases, the direct reason for the delay isn’t made known per se, but none of the previous delays have been associated with search reporting data loss or inaccuracies, so the general consensus is that most of these delays are simple time delays in synchronizing search report data from various Google data centers all over the world.
GSC data delays are almost always unrelated to issues with indexing or crawling of websites. So, even if your Google Search Console hasn’t been updated for quite a while, it most likely won’t directly affect your ranking.
Do Search Console Report Delays Signify An Upcoming Algorithm Update?
No, not necessarily. As you’ve already learned, time delays in clicks/impressions reporting can be caused by a lot of different factors. To this day there has been little to no correlation of significant Search Console update delays and ongoing core algorithm updates.
Core algorithm updates can more often be anticipated when the search ranking volatility factors rise, which can be detected by various Google SERP scanners available in tools like Semrush, Ahrefs and more.
So next time you see a few extra hours of delay, don’t stress it. As far as the common knowledge goes, the Search Console reporting mechanism functions separately from the search algorithm itself.
Is There Anything To Worry About?
In most cases, no. All the unusual reporting delays are almost always reported by Google representatives either through the Google Search Console Issue Status Dashboard, or on official Google Search Central social media profiles.
Most of the larger delays don’t come with any search data loss and are fixed up as soon as possible. If you’re noticing unusually long delays in your Search Console reporting shown by the Last Updated indicator, the best thing to do is to simply wait until the issues are resolved on Google’s end.
When it comes to the usual delays in data point reporting, only when the Search Console data is fully updated for a given day, you can interpret the click/impression numbers as final. Typically, data in the Search Console is delayed by around 1-2 days, and the impressions and clicks keep on adding up until the data points leave the Most recent date filtered area. The finalized data does not change.
How Long Does It Take For Google Search Console To Show Data After Adding Your Site?
The short answer is: somewhere around up to a week after adding your domain/website to your Google Search Console you should see your pages start getting indexed and first impressions and hopefully clicks coming in.
The actual time of Google Search Console showing first impressions and clicks on your site depends on a few factors, the most popular of these being:
- Whether all the crucial pages on your site have already been crawled and indexed, or not.
- If the blog posts / articles / pages on your site are of sufficient quality to be indexed after crawling (the big G algo decides that automagically).
- If your content has what it takes to rank on the first or second page of Google search results.
When the quality of your site’s content simply isn’t the best, the actual time to gain first impressions in the search results might be longer, as your content even when indexed, won’t be easily searchable in the Google search engine.
If your brand new site was added to Google Search Console lately and you still don’t see any impressions or clicks, check if your pages are getting crawled and indexed (you can do this in the Indexing -> Pages) tab in GSC, and ensure that your content is of top quality and presents itself as indexing-worthy. Manually requesting indexing of your pages can also help, especially for a new domain!
