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Below are the most recent 30 comments. I try to keep it clean of comment spam, but some times things get through and it takes me several hours to get to it. So please excuse any of that comment spam.

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Dan commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

You're not alone; it looks like news publishers got hit hard. I'm down to well over 98%, dropping from tens of thousands of clicks per day to barely 50 now.

Comment ID #6824628688 01/16/2026 02:51 pm

Dan commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

I was in Discover for years, setting record traffic levels each month, and was wiped overnight by the most recent core update.

Comment ID #6824628278 01/16/2026 02:50 pm

Dan commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d042432ccd7ea35ff9a1c5e0002a560105052e2b3bf4fdbba61a9ae3a476b1e5.png Yeah, it's over. Flatlined following the December core update across everything. Search, Image, Discover, News and more. Can't be affected by Volatility when your traffic is at zero. News publisher here. Everything gone overnight. Have no idea how I can keep a roof above my family's heads now.

Comment ID #6824627823 01/16/2026 02:49 pm

John A. User commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

Yep, making money from stolen content...

Comment ID #6824617222 01/16/2026 02:27 pm

Dimitris Abrazis commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

Since the volatility on 12th discover dropped and news traffic is gone. I really don;t know what the hell is going on and this is driving me mad. We had some great articles these days and no traffic. All this week it is BAD.

Comment ID #6824610296 01/16/2026 02:12 pm

Rasmus Hellmyrs commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

Looks like your site has disappeared from Top Stories, Discover and so on, right? It also don't seem to rank in the first page on the News tab what I can see? Do you still have any traffic at all from Discover?

Comment ID #6824593527 01/16/2026 01:40 pm

n1lss commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

We got absolutely rekt on Jan 6th, but nothing noticeable from this one.

Comment ID #6824591031 01/16/2026 01:35 pm

MrSEO commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

Whatever happend to that sooth sayer a few years ago, that foretold the prophecy of googles greed and how they were going to destroy sites. I can't remember his user name. but he was on here for a few months spilling the beans. It looks liek everythign came true.

Comment ID #6824584619 01/16/2026 01:23 pm

Dark Red Owl commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

Next week I will lay off 5 people I have been with for 20 years. Together we created the site. For several years it was in first place in the country, almost always in the top 5. The last update kicked us out of Google Discover. We spoke via video link with a Google representative. He didn't see anything wrong with the site, except that it was old.

Comment ID #6824582356 01/16/2026 01:19 pm

Tushar Grover commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

I see some folks doing rank and rent/sell lead gen local seo sites in bulk with emd domains does it gives good results now also?

Comment ID #6824581403 01/16/2026 01:17 pm

UncleKrusty commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

We knew it was only a matter of time... <b>OpenAI to begin testing ads on ChatGPT in the U.S.</b> <blockquote>OpenAI on Friday announced it will begin testing ads within ChatGPT in the coming weeks, a highly anticipated decision that could kickstart a lucrative new revenue stream for the artificial intelligence startup.</blockquote>Full story: <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/16/open-ai-chatgpt-ads-us.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/16/open-ai-chatgpt-ads-us.html</a>

Comment ID #6824575842 01/16/2026 01:07 pm

Matt commented on Google AI Overview Local Pack Leading To Drops In Visibility

...and Google couldn't care less.

Comment ID #6824561147 01/16/2026 12:40 pm

Justin Mosebach commented on Google AI Overview Local Pack Leading To Drops In Visibility

My least favorite part about all of this is how they've made it much less obvious that ads are ads.

Comment ID #6824552265 01/16/2026 12:24 pm

Golden Phoenix commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

Seems like a huge push for YouTube and social sites again. my pages are dropping 2/3 spots and a bunch of YouTUbe posts taking their place. It's depressing but like many of us have predicted, organic traffic will soon be 0.

Comment ID #6824541740 01/16/2026 12:06 pm

Dimitris Abrazis commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

All this week traffic is gone from google. Way to many spam sites, taking over news and discover

Comment ID #6824538619 01/16/2026 12:00 pm

Goo commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

In my case traffic up, conversions down. Even in google ads conversions are down 80% since 3 days. Last week less traffic, more conversions (best week in few weeks). Markets: FR,DE,UK Same Niche

Comment ID #6824531008 01/16/2026 11:46 am

JMH commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

There has been a noticeable tweak, completely dead on both paid and organic after record days on Monday and Tuesday (12th and 13th). But what confuses me the most, when I search for my highest converting keywords in real-time (incognito obviously) they all seem stable. How!?

Comment ID #6824508071 01/16/2026 11:03 am

Taryn White commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

Google's AI slop overviews are also hijacking local business packs even more. <a href="https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-overview-local-pack-drops-40773.html">https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-overview-local-pack-drops-40773.html</a>

Comment ID #6824498303 01/16/2026 10:47 am

BeeLamb commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

Top 5 Scrambled, Traffic down ~30%. Conversions... coming in.. but not enough volume.. Niche Autoparts ~

Comment ID #6824496854 01/16/2026 10:45 am

FokGoogle commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

I've actually been seeing a steady increase in traffic this week on one of my sites. And they're not bots.

Comment ID #6824493404 01/16/2026 10:39 am

Piece of Bread commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

Regarding Adsense, I saw this on my Mediavine dashboard today: An incident with two services that power Google ad bidding is having an industry-wide impact on Google's ad spend. You may see this reflected in earnings from 1/14/2026. We are working with our partners at Google and will continue to monitor the situation. An updated issue tracker can be found here.

Comment ID #6824488867 01/16/2026 10:31 am

Golden Phoenix commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

it's just crap. Here is an example. I was #1 for a rare collectible. Now #6. Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube, and 2 expired auction listings are in top 5. How do you even deal with that? Even for a low traffic keyword.

Comment ID #6824478810 01/16/2026 10:14 am

Taryn White commented on Google AI Overview Local Pack Leading To Drops In Visibility

It's obvious they truly don't want searchers to have a choice anymore even among local businesses, and instead condition people to just accept the AI answer at face value.

Comment ID #6824474603 01/16/2026 10:05 am

racefan01 commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

It's broken again. Google will not rest until everything is destroyed

Comment ID #6824469785 01/16/2026 09:55 am

racefan01 commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

No traffic, no earnings. Nothing. Only old articles show up in Discover. Is this a new hidden update? Or will the update now be endless?

Comment ID #6824469238 01/16/2026 09:54 am

Ted (or Big T) commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

Discover not indexing new articles. They have problem. Anyone see this?

Comment ID #6824460510 01/16/2026 09:36 am

DataDonkey commented on Google Search To Prioritize Removing Prediction News Content In Search

They are all bad but we must not let these corrupt politicians enjoy decades sitting in their positions to fleece taxpayers and take big tech's bribe money. Like a Google update, these current politicians must be penalized for their black hat politics. Assuming Democrats do get control, Republicans will be whining again when Google goes back to the way it was under Biden. Kinda like A/B testing, I'm sure Google can flip the switch to gain favor with politicians and will do so if Democrats regain control again.

Comment ID #6824446611 01/16/2026 09:07 am

Hunar commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 12

Traffic absolutely done for me today down 80%. Yet rankings are up. Makes sense..

Comment ID #6824443775 01/16/2026 09:01 am

John A. User commented on Google Search To Prioritize Removing Prediction News Content In Search

and Schumer, Pelosi and Lofgren for Dems, the whole system stinks... They all have relatives working for BigTech so conflicts of Interest whereas except for a few, all are curry favouring Trump for Heir Apparent. Different Parties, Different Reasons, Same Levels of Corruption.

Comment ID #6824443351 01/16/2026 09:00 am

DataDonkey commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Around January 15-16

Maybe it's just Google tossing another shovel full of dirt on everyone's grave? There's no change in traffic whatsoever, and that's because of AI Slop Overviews, Ads and those People Also Piss boxes at the top of the serp's. Ranking even number 1 is dead as is Google.

Comment ID #6824441247 01/16/2026 08:55 am

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