Google May 2026 Core Update Volatility Hits Hard Again June 2nd

Just when I thought the Google search volatility would start to cool, I am seeing another spike in huge search ranking volatility today - June 2nd. As a reminder, the Google May 2026 core update was announced on May 21, 2026, and then that following weekend, we saw some significant ranking volatility, and then again, this past weekend, we saw even more volatility. But today, I am seeing even more volatility spike up - yes, on a Tuesday - June 2, 2026.

I do believe this started Friday, May 29th but really was seen more on Saturday, May 30th. This is turning out to be a pretty significant Google core update, a big Google search ranking update.

When Google announced this core update, Google said, "This is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites. The rollout may take up to 2 weeks to complete." Two weeks will be later this week, but I suspect it is almost fully rolled out by this time.

I thought the update would be done, so maybe this is a sign of one last push from this core update and Google will say it is completed soon...

UPDATE: The Google May 2026 core update is now done - it finished rolling out about an hour after I posted this story.

Google Tracking Tools

Here is what the third-party Google search results tracking tools are showing:

SEMRush:

Advanced Web Ranking:

Sistrix:

Wireboard - this report shows the aggregate of the tools above and plots them on one chart:

Zutrix Tension:

Wincher:

SimilarWeb:

Algoroo:

Mangools:

Data For SEO:

Mozcast:

Accuranker:

SERP Stat:

You can also check out our new Google search ranking volatilty aggregator tool to see these all on one chart:

SEO Chatter

Here is some new SEO chatter from WebmasterWorld and this site:

The volatility on the ground is absolutely insane right now.

Well, things have been bad for 5 months after dropped 90% in December. I've been trying to make fixes. However, I didn't think it could get worse. Dropped another 50% this May update. Hoping something changes : (

Back to traffic changes:

May was extraordinarily strong conversion-wise, Google traffic has re-stabilized at April levels, bot visits are outrageous, and CF isn't keeping up with a large portion of them - yet again, overall conversions were great, and revenue is up on my project.

Putting in a lot of work cleansing the UI and removing technical debt lately, sometimes "move forward regardless" is a good strategy when Google goes crazy.

Are you seeing a big change in your rankings today?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.