Introduction to Google Search Console Issue
Google Search Console’s Core Web Vitals (CWV) reporting for mobile devices has experienced a significant dip, confirmed to be related to the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX). The CWV reports for mobile performance show a marked dip beginning around July 10, with the reporting appearing to stop completely.
Not a Search Console Issue
Someone posted about the issue on Bluesky, asking if there was a known issue or bug with Core Web Vitals reporting in Search Console. The person reported seeing a sudden massive drop in reported URLs on mobile as of July 14. However, Google’s John Mueller responded that the reports are based on samples of what they know for the site, and sometimes the overall sample size for a site changes. He suggested focusing on the samples with issues rather than the absolute counts.
CrUX CWV Field Data
CrUX is the acronym for the Chrome User Experience report, which provides CWV reporting based on real website visits. The data is collected from Chrome browser website visits by users who have opted-in to reporting their data for the report. Google’s Chrome For Developers page explains that CrUX is the official dataset of the Web Vitals program, representing all user-centric Core Web Vitals metrics.
Core Web Vitals Reporting Outage Is Widespread
As more people joined the conversation, it became clear that the issue was not isolated to one site. Alan Bleiweiss offered a comment and a screenshot showing the same behavior, where the reporting completely drops off, happening on the Search Console CWV reports for other websites. A screenshot of a Search Console CWV report showed the drop in reporting starting around July 10.
CWV Reporting Outage Is Confirmed
Barry Pollard, Web Performance Developer Advocate on Google Chrome, posted about the issue on Bluesky, confirming a reporting outage affecting CrUX data, particularly on mobile. He mentioned that a potential reason and fix were being rolled out to reverse the temporary dip.
Takeaways
- A sudden stop in CWV reporting was observed in Google Search Console around July 10, especially on mobile.
- The issue is widespread, not site-specific, with multiple users confirming the drop across different websites.
- The origin of the issue is not at Search Console, with John Mueller confirming there were no changes on the Search Console side.
- There is a possible link to the CrUX data pipeline, with Barry Pollard confirming a reporting outage and mentioning a fix may be rolled out at an unspecified time in the future.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Google Search Console Core Web Vitals reporting issue is a confirmed problem affecting CrUX data, particularly on mobile devices. The issue was first reported around July 10, with multiple users confirming the drop in reporting across different websites. Google has acknowledged the issue and is working on a fix, which is expected to be rolled out in the future. Website owners and developers can rest assured that the issue is being addressed, and they can expect the reporting to return to normal once the fix is implemented.