Google Search Ranking Volatility & Swings Continue

To be honest, the Google Search ranking volatility has not cooled at all since the pre-launch of the Google August 2024 core update. But something happened yesterday which caused a bit more of a swing of things in the rankings at Google Search. It is like we have had a constant Google Search ranking update for the past month or so – and no, this is not the longest volatility period from Google yet (although we may hit it).

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. And now I am September 18th.

Google Tracking Tools

Here are what the tools are showing – just look at how the volatility really has not calmed in most of these tools. Some of the tools are calmer but still show spikes around these dates. I wonder what is going on at Google, and I suspect Google wonders as well. 🙂

SERPmetrics:

Semrush:

Advanced Web Rankings:

SimilarWeb:

Algoroo:

SERPstat:

Accuranker:

Mangools:

Wincher:

Mozcast:

Data For SEO:

Cognitive SEO:

SEO Chatter

I cannot just go by these tools because most of them have just been showing volatility for the past month or so. The chatter within the SEO industry is a good tool for me to see bigger swings on specific days. So I think we had another big swing yesterday, September 18th.

Here is what I am hearing from WebmasterWorld and here in the past 24-hours or so.

HUGE drop today…

Same here.. HUGE drop today! 🙁

I’m really sorry to write this because I wish it were the case for all of you. Google suddenly seems to have taken a liking to my news site. I already mentioned that I had a very good weekend, but it goes even further than that. Since then, I’ve had roughly the same high number of readers that Google sends me every day (357% more than during the week), mainly via Discover. Sistrix also shows me that the value of visibility continues to rise (quadrupling since Friday). I would like to understand where this is coming from all of a sudden, but since I haven’t changed anything on the site, I don’t see any reason.

Slight recovery past 2 days. Keyword counts per Ahrefs also reversed and appear to be going up again. Too early to tell if its a real trend.

Same for me, the period from after labor day until now has been extremely high traffic. But it is slowly tapering off. I am seeing loses in top 3 and top 10 terms again and also my USA traffic is reverting to the old lower level day by day. Customer inquiries are also slowing down again. Non-USA traffic is still sky high though

A drop seems like it might have started yesterday at around noon…my traffic dropped like a stone and stayed down rest of the day. Today USA traffic is -40% at 11am, which has broken the pattern of being up every day since Sept. 3rd or so.

Oh … 75% of my Googleday gone and already at 167% v the month so far !

I, too, have a nice increase in traffic today, but that is not reflected in my revenue…yet.

Yes, today’s data. Yesterday was less notable. However, after 4pm, everything went back to normal. It seemed like a filter was turned on, then off…

Does anyone notice drop in impressions today, any upcoming update?

So what are you all seeing?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.