Google Search Console's performance report is showing a weird spike in clicks for some sites over the past couple of days. It is not impacting all sites, and it might be a bug, but some are seeing this huge increase in clicks reported by Search Console.
I was first notified this from the folks over at Search Engine Land and covered it there but it is weird. In that case, three sites show a huge spike in clicks using the Search Console API but the web interface in Google only shows the spike on one of those three.
Then Joy Hawkins posted on X the same thing, a spike in clicks in Search Console - look at this chart:
Glenn Gabe replied that he is seeing it for some sites and not all - he posted a screenshot on X:
Here is a chart from the comments area on this site:
One person wrote, "I have 5x clicks in GSC for the weekend... could this be rank trackers resolving the ?goto parameters? They don't seem to have translated to actual traffic on site. Has anyone else seen a big spike?"
Here is more chatter on this:
@lilyraynyc Only seeing that on a few properties. Most DO NOT show that. And very well could be a bug.
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 3, 2026
@glenngabe Spotted this yesterday morning, but couldn’t tell any of the big influential SEO dawgs that it was happening across 60% of brands I’d say, because of their private messaging restrictions 🥲 so I have been waiting for this for a while now 🤣 Check your GA data too for the 31st 👀
— Weird Ginger (@_WeirdGinger) November 3, 2026
@rustybrick Still there. 3 sites so far look like this. Based on the CTR patterns I'm seeing I'm fairly confident it's bot traffic. https://t.co/yk5tiV8xyg
— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) November 3, 2026
@alexwolk1 That graph is clicks. Impressions are flat. https://t.co/psQ9tNQ86u
— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) November 3, 2026
Are you seeing this for your sites?
I reached out to Google for a comment...
Forum discussion at X.
