Google Search Ranking Volatility Spiked Thursday - May 8th

It has been a couple of weeks since we last reported on a Google search ranking update, I bet a ton of you were wondering if I was feeling off. But it has been relatively calm for the past couple of weeks, that is until today. I am seeing renewed volatility over the past 24-hours and the SEO community chatter is picking up on it as well.

The last time we reported on ranking volatility with Google Search was on April 25th and then before that, 22nd and 23rd volatility and then around April 16th and then before that around April 9th. We have yet to have second official update in 2025, we had the March 2025 core update but no other official update in 2025 - yet.

I should note, there is/was a GA4 real time bug this morning...

So what are we seeing now? Well, I am seeing chatter kick off over the past day or so within the SEO community and some of the tools, not all, are seeing big volatility.

Google Tracking Tools

Let's start with what the tools are showing:

Semrush:

Advanced Web Rankings:

SimilarWeb:

Sistrix:

Mozcast:

Wincher:

Cognitive SEO:

Accuranker:

Algoroo:

Mangools:

Data For SEO:

SERPstat:

Wiredboard's Aggregator of Tools - this report shows the aggregate of the tools above and plots them on one chart:

SEO Chatter

Now for the SEO chatter, which is just starting to kick off. We have some at this site, deep inside the comments and also on WebmasterWorld. Here are some of the quotes, not all:

It is a rollercoaster. But we are seeing a slight trend upwards while sales do not really pick up. I noticed that Google is using heavily localized SERPs. So, no tools can really reliably say your positions.

Today USA is -60% at 10:30 and UK is -37%. Search is -33%. This is compared to the previous week, but if I average it out over the last four Mondays the decline is much smaller. So that means that the elevated level of traffic of the previous 7-10 days was a total aberration and it has reverted back to the lower level. Very odd...

Anyone notice any changes? 3 hours ago, Google Discover traffic to my site stopped. And this time it's not an analytics glitch.

My main site is recovering, don't you see that spike

Anyone else still seeing daily, substantial changes. We are, UK.

So what are you all seeing? We are due a core update soon...

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.