There may have been another Google Search ranking algorithm tweak around October 28th or so. I am seeing some rumblings both within the SEO community chatter and the third-party Google tracking tools. It seems some are noticing big search ranking swings around October 28th.
Did you notice ranking movement? Was there a Google search ranking update?
The last time I reported on Google ranking volatility was between October 15th to 17th and then on October 7/8th and to be honest, there has been a lot less chatter since Google turned off the ability to see 100 results per page and the tools began to recalibrate. But that being said, SEOs can tell, outside of these tools, when there is a ranking adjustment and it seems there was a significant one around October 16th.
SEO Chatter
Here is some of the chatter from WebmasterWorld:
An extreme drop in UK traffic today, down 42%. It has been down 42% all day as if UK traffic just completely halted. Anyone else seeing that?
Google traffic is down since Friday, and Sunday was really worse.
Whatever Google is doing right now, it's not normal. Google News is hardly being updated anymore. My news site is still in Discover, but only for an hour at most, after which traffic drops off completely. Almost nothing comes in via normal search because it's totally messed up. The headline box shows everything except news on that specific topic and articles that are weeks old. Of course, Search Console is also down, so you can't check your ranking properly, and as expected, the AI overview focuses on large publishers. Let's see how long we small players can survive; it won't be long if this continues.
An even more extreme drop in traffic today, I'm at -42% of search at 10am. All of the drop so far is from USA and UK, which are far below the norm this morning. Is anyone else experiencing this? It seems that something has been updating these past few days.
By the way, US and UK traffic both snapped back at 10am sharp and is now erasing the losses. The drops are so extreme these days...that is all Google updating behind the scenes I think.
@rustybrick was there an update on the 27th of Oct? Noticed big traffic jumps on several blogs I manage.
— Lisa Sicard 👩💻 (@Lisapatb) October 29, 2025
Google search rankings seem to be fluttering...
Tracking Tools
Here are what the tools are showing this morning:
Wiredboard's Aggregator of Tools - this report shows the aggregate of the tools above and plots them on one chart:
So what are you all seeing?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
