Google has confirmed an issue with Google Discover traffic related to a bug with the Google October 2023 core update.
The issue started on October 5, 2023, when the core update started to roll out, and was fixed on October 31, 2023.
What Google said. Google wrote, on the Search Status report, “On October 5, we found a bug with how our October 2023 core update was applied to Discover.” “As of October 31, we fixed the bug. Some sites may see an increase in Discover-related traffic, as a result of this bug fix,” Google added.
Google also posted, “We found a bug with how our Oct. 2023 core update was applied to Discover, which has now been corrected. Some sites may see an increase in Discover-related traffic, as a result. Start and end time for this issue is now on the Search Status Dashboard,” on X.
Why we care. If you noticed unusually low Google Discover traffic for your site since October 5th, it may be related to this bug with the core update. If you notice an increase in your Discover traffic starting today, then you can be assured it was likely due to that bug.
That being said, traffic from Google Discover is not normally something you can rely on as it can be very sporadic with highs and lows.