Google Search Ranking Movement Heated, Volatility Continues

Google Search still has not calmed its ranking shifts, volatility and movement. The search results remain incredibly volatile with rankings and traffic changing again in a big way over the past day or so. I know I sound like a broken record but even some of the tools are adjusting their volatility thresholds to counter the new higher volatility in the Google search results.

As a reminder, the Google August 2024 core update started on August 15th and officially completed on September 3rd. But it was still super volatile the day after it completed and also weeks after it completed and it has not cooled.

We saw big signals on and around September 6th, September 10th or so and maybe around September 14th. We also saw movement around September 18th and this weekend. Now it is kicking up again, even more so, amongst this continued volatility.

Google Tracking Tools

Here are what the tools are showing – you will notice some even changed their threshold for volatility – so they are showing calmer waters.

SERPmetrics:

Semrush:

Advanced Web Rankings:

SimilarWeb:

Algoroo:

SERPstat:

Accuranker:

Mangools:

Wincher:

Mozcast:

Data For SEO:

Cognitive SEO:

SEO Chatter

And there has been a spike in the already heated chatter over the past 24-hours both here and on WebmasterWorld. Here are some quotes from those discussions:

It’s been a roller coaster for me ever since the August update ended. C’mon Google, announce the new update already, sheesh.

Anyone experiencing a dip in traffic again today?

Yep. Already lost 50% on site #3 in mid-August. Down an additional 50% from that.

We’re down 50% right now from mid august. 🙁

Yep! Traffic down 95% So far today.

Yesterday was an absolute record day for my news page. Today it has calmed down again, but there are still a lot of visitors. But 87 percent of the traffic comes from Discover.
If this is an update, then a lot is going wrong. Yesterday, I kept getting fake shops in the top three hits for product searches. Having said that, I’m seeing more and more smaller websites in Discover here in Germany. Let’s see how long that lasts…

I am seeing a big drop in USA traffic today USA…-39% at 10:45am. USA traffic is nothing like two weeks ago. UK and the rest of the world are still very strong. After a burst of orders after labor day new customer inquiries are again very slow, but not quite as bad as earlier in 2024. Perhaps after the elections it will pick up in the US again. That is if we don’t have Israel starting WW3 in the Middle East…

Today has been the best day in a while. My traffic hasn’t changed, but the revenue has increased…better than last year at this time. I hope it keeps up, but I’m purposefully not optimistic.

Yes, I can see the drop in traffic here too. It was fine until 2 p.m., then the traffic dropped sharply. But that can change again due to the constant back and forth in an hour.

I am seeing continued weakness in USA traffic, but now it is spreading to other English language traffic (CA and AU)…a typical pattern for the last few years now and an indicator to me that we are reverting back to the old norms.

USA traffic is always on a drip whereas the other locations are flowing freely, especially UK which is almost always fairly strong,

33% drop in USA traffic today by 5pm…something is definitely brewing.

What are you all seeing in the past day or two? More recovery reversals or swings back the other way?

Forum discussion at here and on WebmasterWorld.