Google Search Console incorrectly notified site owners on April 15, 2026, that their websites had only begun generating impressions in Google Search as of April 12. Google Search Advocate John Mueller confirmed on Bluesky that the notification was a technical error, stating: "Sorry – this is just a normal glitch, unrelated to anything else."
What the Email Said
The message read: "Google systems confirm that on April 12, 2026, we started collecting Google Search impressions for your website in Search Console. This means that pages from your website are now appearing in Google search results for some queries." For many recipients managing established websites, the wording strongly implied that their site had not previously been appearing in search results at all, which was not accurate.
The notification carried no qualifier indicating it was sent in error. The implication of the message, that impressions were not being collected before April 12, is incorrect. Sites' historical impression data and search presence were not affected.
The Existing Impression Bug
The erroneous email arrived in the middle of a separate, more significant Search Console data issue that Google had publicly acknowledged less than two weeks earlier. Google confirmed a logging error that had been inflating impression counts in Search Console since May 13, 2025, a period stretching nearly a year. The company updated its Data Anomalies in Search Console page on April 3, 2026, formally acknowledging the problem and warning that reported impressions will decrease as the fix rolls out over the coming weeks.
Google's official notice on the Data Anomalies page, published April 3, 2026, states: "A logging error is preventing Search Console from accurately reporting impressions from May 13, 2025, onward. This issue will be resolved over the next few weeks; as a result, you may notice a decrease in impressions in the Search Console Performance report. Clicks and other metrics were not affected by the error, and this issue affected data logging only."
A Google spokesperson confirmed that the company identified a reporting error that temporarily led to an over-reporting of impressions from May 13, 2025, onward, and that bug fixes are being implemented to ensure accurate reporting.
What Data Was and Was Not Affected
According to Google, only impressions were affected. Clicks, average position, and CTR are listed as unaffected. However, because impression counts factor into click-through rate calculations, changes in impressions will affect derived metrics such as CTR. With a smaller denominator, CTR can appear to rise even when user behaviour is unchanged.
The issue affects the Performance report, one of the most widely consulted data sources among SEO professionals and marketing teams for measuring organic search visibility.
Whether the Two Events Are Connected
Mueller stated on Bluesky that the April 15 email was unrelated to the ongoing impressions correction. The April 15 erroneous email arrived in the middle of the correction window opened by the April 3 disclosure. Whether the two are technically related or genuinely separate events is unclear. Mueller's Bluesky response characterized the message as independent, just a standard glitch, but the timing is curious enough that the SEO community is paying close attention to whether any further clarification emerges from Google.
Google has not issued a follow-up statement beyond Mueller's Bluesky post as of the time of publication.
Implications for Marketers and SEO Teams
Site owners who received the April 15 notification do not need to take corrective action; their sites' indexing and actual search presence were not disrupted. The more consequential data issue remains the ongoing correction to impression counts stemming from the May 2025 logging error. As that fix continues rolling out, impression figures in the Performance report are expected to decrease. Teams relying on impression data for performance reporting or year-over-year comparisons should treat any data from May 13, 2025, onward as potentially inflated. Clicks and organic traffic figures from Google Analytics remain the more reliable signals during this period.
The bug persisted for almost eleven months, from May 13, 2025, to the announcement on April 3, 2026, meaning all impression data during this period is potentially distorted. Google's Data Anomalies in Search Console page at support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6211453 remains the authoritative reference for updates on the fix's rollout status.
