: Why is showing Google Indexing time difference? We have a News portal site. After News post, we try to search at Google that is this index or not. But suddenly we have seen that some of

@Alves908

(DISCLAIMER: Answer based on observation, rather than hard fact...)



FWIW, I've noticed similar discrepancies with other reported "news" articles as well in the SERPs (you are not alone). The same URL is linked to in both the "Top stories" section and the regular search result, but there is a small discrepancy in the timing. If there is a difference, the "Top stories" section shows the lesser time. Sometimes this difference might only be 1 minute (if less than the hour).

This isn't actually too difficult to replicate. If you search for the title of a news story (without quotes in my example) and after a few searches you often find one that shows this discrepancy.

For example, if I currently search for UN commits to stop ocean plastic waste (no quotes), then the top result returns a BBC News article. The "Top stories" section reports "20 hours ago", yet the search result below (for the very same URL) shows "21 hours ago".



I think @StephenOstermiller 's comment is relevant:


Google has different systems that get notified about updates differently.


It may also just be down to how the different systems round the time for display. For example, take the news article above... examining the actual time in the article (data-seconds property of the HTML element) shows that the article was in fact updated 21.86 hours ago. From that, you could assume that the "Top stories" section always "rounds down" and the search results are "rounded the nearest whole number" (just an observation)?



UPDATE: In fact, performing the same search a few minutes later (in the next "hour") shows how the time is updated. Now the two bbc.co.uk URLs (previously showing "20" and "21 hours ago" respectively) both show the same "22 hours ago". And the ladbible.com URLs (2nd result) that previously showed the same "15 hours ago", now show two different times (1 hour difference): "16" and "17 hours ago" respectively. This would seem to be consistent with simply a difference in how the time is displayed (ie. rounded), as mentioned above. (?)

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@Berumen354

UPDATE: After reviewing the image of Google's search results (showing the 2hr discrepancy) and then the full URL that shows the cached time, are you sure that Google is not showing 2 separate pages of your site? One is the home page and the other an interior page?

If we are dealing with the exact same page, then is it not also possible that the article could have been updated after your initial post, perhaps either by the author or an individual who just simply left a comment? The additional comment, for example, does change the information on the page - and given that your page is being indexed and considered newsworthy, it's plausible that 2hrs ago represents the initial index time, and the "Top Stories" section represents the most recent update?

One thing I recommend doing is checking Google Analytics for your selected time zone to ensure that there is not a discrepancy with expectations are far as the time that Google uses as it relates to attaching a time to the indexation or document inception of your site.



First and foremost, be sure set-up your Google Analytics Account and choose the appropriate time zone. This can be changed if need be.

Upon syncing Analytics with Search Console,


Apply for inclusion within the Google News Publisher Center.
Verify ownership (if you have not already) with Search Console.
Click Request Inclusion in Google News
Enter your site's details (i.e. the News section URLs and labels, and click submit.
Check back in 1-3 weeks to see if your request for inclusion has been accepted.

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