Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Update: Volatility & Chatter Spike

I know I just reported on an unconfirmed Google Search ranking update from this past Saturday, October 24th. But I am now seeing a larger spike in volatility, along with an increase in SEO community chatter around another unconfirmed update over the past 24 hours.

The update seems to have started about 12 hours ago, but Google hasn't officially confirmed anything yet.

This follows the unconfirmed updates I reported on past Saturday, October 24th, before that on October 20th & 21st and then before than on October 16th. And as a reminder, we had the Google September 2026 spam update start on Thursday, September 24, 2026 at around 12:00 pm ET and completed on October 8, 2026 at 4:37 am ET.

And yes, the Google tracking tools are struggling - even today, despite what some tools are issuing for statements.

Google Tracking Tools

Let's start with the tools, since we just mentioned them. Notice how heated Semrush is this morning:

All the tools individually:

Wincher:

SEMRush:

CognitiveSEO:

AWR:

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

Serpstat:

SERPrecon:

Mangools SERPWatcher:

DataForSEO SERP Volatility:

AccuRanker Grump:

Zutrix Tension:

Mozcast:

SimilarWeb:

Sistrix:

Algoroo:

SEO Chatter

There is a lot of chatter within the industry, here are some quotes from our comments and WebmasterWorld:

Same here. While we're still getting traffic from News and Discover, it's damn weak. Ironically, our articles are indexed within seconds and even show up in Top Stories. And yes, when doing spot checks, we all see outdated articles here (crap, etc.). I think by now we can safely say that Google's news system is completely broken. There's simply no other explanation for i

So again today, for a different site, seeing the same as I saw yesterday. Huge keyword gains but not yet traffic gains. This site was hit by the 2025 core update and has been suppressed to 20+ for a while. The below image shows desktop left positions and mobile right.

Super HOT today. Semrush 9,4 point

It feels like the rollout has started.

Absolutely horrible Monday again, almost identical to last week. Sat/Sun were fairly normal, today complete tank. Crazy volume on our site but conversions were way down.

What are you all seeing over the past 24 hours?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.