Users over the weekend were bewildered by Google Search Console failure to index webpages and the accompanying cryptic message, Failure: hostload exceeded.

Many publishers checked with their web hosts then reported that the problem was not at the web host.

It was assumed that the problem was on Google’s side.

Google’s John Mueller helped to unravel the mystery.

Hostload Exceeded Issue Not A Web Host Issue

There are at least two discussions on the private Affiliate SEO Mastermind Facebook group noted that their sites that were hosted on Namecheap was experiencing the “Failed:Hostload exceeded” issue.

There’s a post on a WordPress/Bloggers Facebook Group where the person experiencing hostload exceeded issues was on an Indian web host, DRWebhost.

Many people on X (formerly Twitter) noted that their sites hosted on Hostinger were unable to request indexing as well.

Hostinger opened an incident report with the following message:

“We have noticed an increased rate of errors when attempting to index websites via Google Console.

We are already working on a resolution and will update You in the process.

Thank You for Your patience.”

An updated noted they had identified the issue and by the following day on Saturday they marked the incident as resolved.

But many search console users continued to assert that the issue was not fixed.

It’s clear that the issue is not just on one web host.

And contrary to what solutions that some were proposing, the problem has nothing to do with bandwidth or crawling issues at the web host.

Each person verified that the problem was not at the web host.

Eventually, it became clear why so many were experiencing this indexing issue.

Google Support Pages Swarmed With Indexing Failure Reports

Google Support Center experienced a surge of users seeking help for the “hostload exceeded” error.

I searched Google’s support portal for the keyword “hostload exceeded” restricting the results for one week and received nearly 40 requests for help.

Screenshot Of Search Results

This report was typical:

“Failed: Hostload exceeded error in Google Webmaster.

While submitting the URLs for Indexing the errors pops up “Failed: Hostload exceeded”.

Due to which I am not able to index any new & old URLs as well. How to solve this issue?”

What’s Going On With Search Console Indexing?

Google’s John Mueller entered the discussion and shared his opinion on what was happening.

A person tweeted:

I know I’m not the only one getting ‘Hostload exceeded’ errors after searching on here.
I’m not on hostinger, there’s enough disc space; what’s going on please @searchliaison @JohnMu?

— Nat (@__nca) October 22, 2023

John Mueller responded:

“I wouldn’t worry about it – normal crawling and indexing is generally fine.”

In response to Ammon John’s request for more information, John Mueller retweeted someone else’s tweet indicating that only low quality sites were experiencing the issue.

Not An Issue With Search Console

Ammon Johns tweeted a request for more transparency:

“If it is nothing important enough to worry about, surely it is something not secret enough for someone to be unable to explain?

It would put many minds at rest, and is exactly the sort of transparency most of us would **** to see more of from Google.”

Mueller responded:

“People are spamming the Inspect URL / Submit to Indexing tool – normal indexing works fine.”

Mueller’s answer suggests that the people who are experiencing hostload exceeded problems are submitting too many URLs.

Mueller responded to another tweet asking for help by asking them when do they see the problem.

Someone else answered:

“I believe we all see it when inspect via the url live test.”

John Mueller responded:

“Then just don’t do that?

Crawling and indexing happens naturally.”

In general, Google declines to index webpages when there’s a quality issue.

Mueller didn’t say that quality was an issue.

But someone else noted that they haven’t been indexed naturally since the core update, which is an indication that it might be a quality issue for some people.

It’s not happening naturally though. Since the core update, our site hasn’t been indexed in days. Brutal for a news outlet. Could delayed indexing/hostload exceeded error be related? I literally haven’t had to think about indexing in years until this update.

— Jay Anders🦃n 🇨🇦 (@CageSideJay) October 21, 2023

This topic is evolving and this article will be updated if more information comes out.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/ViChizh