Barry is also the founder of the Search Engine Roundtable and the News Editor of Search Engine Land .
You can follow Barry on Twitter at @rustybrick or on LinkedIn and read his full bio over hereI am seeing signs of another Google Search ranking update with a lot of volatility hitting this past weekend again.
But the last confirmed Google search ranking update was the June 2026 spam update which started on June 14 and completed on June 26.
Prior to that was the Google May 2026 core update that started on May 21st and completed on June 2nd.
Which is why many large publishers are considering blocking Google Search from their websites completely.
Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick and a technologist, a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales. Barry is also the founder of the Search Engine Roundtable and the News Editor of Search Engine Land . He is well known & respected for his expertise in the search marketing industry. He only provides consulting services to expert SEOs and also performs search marketing expert witness services. Barry graduated from the City University of New York and lives with his family in the NYC region. You can follow Barry on Twitter at @rustybrick or on LinkedIn and read his full bio over here
I am seeing signs of another Google Search ranking update with a lot of volatility hitting this past weekend again. This one started on Saturday, August 1st, and has continued thus far through today, August 3rd. Both the third-party tracking tools are showing a spike and there is chatter within the SEO community about a lot of this ranking shuffling.
As a reminder, we saw previous unconfirmed on July 24th and then before that, we had volatility on the 18th and 19th, which honestly lasted through the week. Before that was the Google 7-Eleven update. But the last confirmed Google search ranking update was the June 2026 spam update which started on June 14 and completed on June 26. Prior to that was the Google May 2026 core update that started on May 21st and completed on June 2nd.
The sad thing is, these ranking movements continue to matter less and less for publishers because Google is sending less and less traffic to publishers. Which is why many large publishers are considering blocking Google Search from their websites completely. The exchange in value for Google crawling one's site, to it sending traffic, has been flipped on its head.
So what are we seeing?
SEO Chatter
Let's start with the SEO community chatter across Black Hat World, WebmasterWorld and our comments:
Analytics dancing this weekend...
Definitely something happening again on my side - even though "something happening" seems to be a constant. I used to have more traffic on weekends. Since the June update it somehow flattened out. Ranking spikes are crazy. Yesterday before the June update I was on cushy Rank 6-7, yesterday I was almost 12 with 1.7 CTR, today back at 9 with 2.3. They lost the plot.
Does anyone else see the shuffling of results in the SERP today? It's like it's in a blender!
The event started exactly on 1-Aug-2026 coinciding with previous traffic drops on 1-Jun and 1-Jul. So, I've noticed a pattern in my traffic drops and it may not be a coincidence. Some of my sites lost rankings and one site almost disappeared from SERPs. I've manually checked SERPs and found that there is a lot of shuffling and Youtube videos are getting high preference. I keep tweaking my sites, so I don't know if I messed up something or Google dropped a nuke on my sites. Please share with us if you are experiencing traffic drops, so that I can confirm it?
I have seen positive results for my adult sites, not so sure about the update. Nowadays Google tweak algo almost every day and throw sites out of index for no good reason. Do you see any warning or updates in Google webmaster or semrush for your sites?
Our traffic is all over the place. One second looks normal ish (but low), the next second we have random articles from 2021 getting Discover traffic. I have to imagine there is an unconfirmed update happening.
Google Tracking Tools
Here are what the tools are currently showing, first with our aggregator tool and as you can see, there is a noticable spike today, August 3rd:
Google Volatility Chart Data Sources AccuRanker Algoroo AWR CognitiveSEO DataForSEO Mangools Mozcast SEMRush Serpstat SimilarWeb Sistrix Wincher Wireboard Zutrix
Here are the specific individual tools:
Sistrix:
Wireboard - this report shows the aggregate of the tools above and plots them on one chart:
AccuRanker Grump:
Zutrix Tension:
CognitiveSEO:
Wincher:
Serpstat:
DataForSEO SERP Volatility:
SimilarWeb:
Algoroo:
Mozcast:
AWR:
SEMRush:
Mangools SERPWatcher:
What are you all seeing?
Forum discussion at Black Hat World and WebmasterWorld.
