Google Search Ranking Fluctuation Report

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The last time I reported on the ongoing fluctuations in Google search rankings, I noted that we seemed to be in a slow period. Interestingly, for most of that time, search volatility appeared quiet, but towards the end of the week, chatter among SEO professionals increased. However, the analytics tools monitoring ranking shifts didn’t show heightened activity until a couple of days afterward.

Let me bring you up to speed on the past week regarding user discussions and the tracking tools documenting search ranking changes.

On Wednesday and Thursday, August 20th and 21st, there was a notable spike in conversations. Both SEO experts on various forums and in other communities observed significant swings in their rankings. This turbulence subsided into the weekend, yet third-party tracking tools showed indices of volatility spiking again on Saturday and Sunday. Quite puzzling, isn’t it?

To recall, the June 2025 core update began rollout on June 30th and wrapped up early Thursday, July 17th. Despite its completion, search ranking instability persisted well beyond that date. When the update was first announced, there was little apparent movement, but signs of fluctuation emerged on July 2nd. By July 10th, some noticed partial recoveries from previous core and helpful content updates—though not everyone experienced this. Even four days after the update’s completion, volatility remained intense and hasn’t stabilized weeks later. The last updates I covered regarding ongoing ranking shifts were on August 6th and 11th. Afterwards, a period of calmer activity was observed, which I mentioned earlier.

Third-Party Tools Tracking Search Volatility

Many analytics tools indicated decreased volatility over the weekend, although not all showed this trend:

This aggregator consolidates data from multiple sources and visualizes their combined volatility metrics on a single chart, providing a broad overview of search ranking fluctuations.

Search Engine Optimization Community Conversations

Below are some snippets from SEO discussions in various forums:

“Ranking positions shifted with the latest update—some keywords went up, then down again after a refresh.”

“Things are chaotic. Keyword rankings are improving, but website traffic plummeted 50% yesterday, and another 40% today. It’s pretty alarming.”

“Normal weekend, a strong start to the week with a 21% increase in weekly traffic, but today shows a potential sharp decline—the usual search volatility we’ve come to expect. What once implied minimal change now manifests as constant peaks and valleys.”

“Traffic has been terrible since Saturday, with Sunday into Monday being the worst in a long while. Visibility across Discover was heavily impacted, reminiscent of the tail end of the recent update and the immediate post-update period. It just dropped off a cliff without clear reason.”

“Today, traffic suddenly dropped by at least 50%—something major must have happened.”

“Traffic was down 50% from the previous day. Quite bad.”

“Similar pattern—another 50% drop, compounded over previous declines.”

“All my sites experienced very low traffic today. UK-specific sites are understandable due to the holiday weekend, but for my international sites, this is unusual.”

“I haven’t seen pages de-indexed, but traffic rotation can be extreme. My homepage traffic is down 80% by midday—much lower than the usual for Saturdays. However, overall site traffic remains average for a Saturday. This traffic vanishing phenomenon has been ongoing for years, but the drops are now much more severe.”

This snapshot of SEO chatter underscores the ongoing unpredictability and widespread concern over recent search ranking swings. Official updates and community observations continue to point to a period of instability that’s still unfolding.