The chatter is somewhat cool, but the tools showed a spike in the Google Search ranking volatility.
And the chatter came in a bit after the ranking volatility hit.
But the last confirmed Google search ranking update was the June 2026 spam update which started on June 14 and completed on June 26.
Which is why many large publishers are considering blocking Google Search from their websites completely.
The SERPs are awful and Google ranking brain is dumber than ever.
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
We saw a spike in volatility yesterday amongst the Google Search results rankings. There was a spike in ranking movement outside the day-to-day norm that seemed to start yesterday and maybe into today. The chatter is somewhat cool, but the tools showed a spike in the Google Search ranking volatility.
This ranking volatility spiked yesterday, August 13, 2026. And the chatter came in a bit after the ranking volatility hit.
As a reminder, we saw previous unconfirmed on August 5th or so, then around August 1st to 3rd and then before that it was 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.
As I said before, 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.
That being said, have you seen any significant ranking movement in the past day or two?
Google Tracking Tools
Here are what the third-party tools are showing:
Google Volatility Chart Data Sources AccuRanker Algoroo AWR CognitiveSEO DataForSEO Mangools Mozcast SEMRush Serpstat SimilarWeb Sistrix Wincher Wireboard Zutrix
AWR:
AccuRanker Grump:
CognitiveSEO:
Wireboard - this report shows the aggregate of the tools above and plots them on one chart:
Zutrix Tension:
Mozcast:
Serpstat:
Wincher:
DataForSEO SERP Volatility:
SimilarWeb:
Mangools SERPWatcher:
Algoroo:
SEMRush:
Sistrix:
SEO Chatter
There is some chatter over at WebmasterWorld that just really started to happen this morning but some saw it the day prior - here are some quotes:
Traffic is awful. The SERPs are awful and Google ranking brain is dumber than ever.
Guys, something really bad is happening! Especially on Discover here in Brazil! The drops are sharp, exceeding 70%... Meanwhile, niche-free sites made entirely by AI are booming! Some are appearing 8 times in the feed, which is outrageous!
Yesterday traffic went up 200% till late afternoon. It didn´t lead to conversions. Since yesterday late afternonn traffic has reached a new low. Compared to January we are down to 25%. Amazon sales picked up in this time by 244%.
I can confirm that. Traffic spiked significantly at first and then dropped off on both of my sites. Although the shop performed well yesterday, the conversion rate was pretty weak considering the high number of visitors. At the same time, I'm seeing a massive amount of finance spam in my niche again. This is the exact same pattern I've been observing repeatedly over several days for weeks now.
Update: Traffic has completely collapsed right now. I’m seeing this across all the sites I have analytics access to. Some are getting zero traffic from Google, and for all the others, traffic has dropped drastically.
Yes, traffic today is the worst I have ever seen. Panda was a joke compared to this quality update!
What are you all seeing?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
