There are signs that Google rolled out another search ranking update around 28th and 29th October. Several SEOs have reported noticeable shifts in rankings, and third-party tracking tools are also showing signs of movement.
Have you noticed any changes in your rankings recently? It’s possible this could be linked to a new Google update.
The last bout of volatility was seen between 15th and 17th October, with earlier fluctuations on the 7th and 8th. Since Google removed the option to view 100 results per page, there’s been less visible chatter across the community, and many tools are still adjusting.
Even so, experienced SEOs can often sense when rankings shift, and another noticeable adjustment may have occurred around 28th October.
WebmasterWorld has been buzzing with chatter about search volatility:
An extreme drop in UK traffic today, down 42%. It has been down 42% all day as if UK traffic just completely halted. Anyone else seeing that?
Google traffic is down since Friday, and Sunday was really worse.
Whatever Google is doing right now, it’s not normal. Google News is hardly being updated anymore. My news site is still in Discover, but only for an hour at most, after which traffic drops off completely. Almost nothing comes in via normal search because it’s totally messed up. The headline box shows everything except news on that specific topic and articles that are weeks old. Of course, Search Console is also down, so you can’t check your ranking properly, and as expected, the AI overview focuses on large publishers. Let’s see how long we small players can survive; it won’t be long if this continues.
An even more extreme drop in traffic today, I’m at -42% of search at 10am. All of the drop so far is from USA and UK, which are far below the norm this morning. Is anyone else experiencing this? It seems that something has been updating these past few days.
Various Tracking Tools Showing Signs of Volatility
There are lots of tracking tools that are commonly used throughout the SEO industry, and they’re showing some signs of serious ranking volatility. We’ve listed some of the most popular sites below:
Semrush Sensor
Semrush Sensor is a tool within Semrush that tracks and measures fluctuations in Google’s search results (SERPs) on a daily basis.
MozCast
MozCast is a tool created by Moz that gives a daily indicator of how much the search results on Google have changed.
Wincher Search Volatility Index
Wincher’s SERP Volatility tool is a free service that tracks daily fluctuations in Google’s search results across major countries by analysing ranking shifts for around 30,000 keywords.
Mangools SERP Volatility Tracker
Mangools’s SERP Insights tool displays a daily volatility index for desktop and mobile, showing how much the Google search results moved from the previous day, and offers commentary on possible algorithm updates.
Wireboard Tool Aggregator
The Wireboard report shows the aggregate of the tools listed above and plots them on one chart:
Outrank is here to help
If you’ve seen a sudden drop in your rankings over the past few days and are worried about what’s causing it, give us a call. A member of our team will be happy to take a look and talk you through what’s happening.