Google Index Status Report Updated Weekly

The other day someone shared an interesting site with me on Google Webmaster Tools. It was intriguing, so I dug into it. In short, the site had 33,000 pages indexed according to the sitemap report within Google Webmaster Tools but only 3 pages indexed according to the Index Status report within Google Webmaster Tools.

I decided to ask others in the Google Webmaster Help forums if they have ever seen anything like it because I clearly never covered this case at this site.

The answer was no.

Some history about the site:

• The site is a few weeks old.
• The site has a sitemap file a couple days after it went live.
• The site command seems to have about thousands of pages being returned.

Google Webmaster Tools Shows:

• 33,000 of 33,000 pages submitted and indexed via the Sitemap report.
• 3 pages indexed according to the Index Status report

Why wouldn't the Index Status and Sitemap index counts match up?

I asked Google's John Mueller on a Google Hangout yesterday and he said:

• Typically the Index Status report is a weekly snap shot, so it is delayed
• Sitemap numbers are updated daily
• Index Status and Sitemap report on different index types
• Since this site is new, do not worry

I ask the question right at the beginning of the hangout, so just start the video and you can watch his response.

In this business, you see something new every day. I am glad I dug into this example, but this is not an open invitation to send me your issues. I probably respond to 1% of them because I am not a nice person. ;-)

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.