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Google might have rolled out a search ranking update over the past few days. Although initial chatter was quiet, activity has increased today, with several tools detecting fluctuations. It’s likely that the update and related volatility began around Monday, November 24th.
There were subtle signs of changes noticed earlier, leading to hesitation in reporting, especially since a story about a recent update was published on November 20th. However, the signs seem to indicate that these might not be connected. Many SEO professionals are observing significant shifts in rankings, variations in search referrals, traffic fluctuations, and conversion rate changes.
The last notable periods of volatility were identified around November 12th and 20th, with earlier activity between November 8th (what was called the Movember update) and Halloween, along with fluctuations between October 15th and 17th, and earlier in early October. Since Google limited the view to fewer results per page, some discussion has waned, though perceptible ranking adjustments outside of tools suggest a substantial change occurred around October 16th.
With Black Friday—the year’s biggest shopping event—approaching on Friday, many hope these recent changes favorably impact organic visibility.
The current update is being informally dubbed the Thanksgiving 2025 Google update, in anticipation of the holiday.
Regarding SEO chatter, discussions on various forums and platforms indicate widespread noticing of ranking shifts. Comments mention traffic drops, movements in rankings, changes in search referrals, and unpredictability across different sites. Some have reported no traffic at all, old articles appearing in discover feeds, and delays in indexing.
Several SEO tracking tools are reflecting this recent volatility, including Semrush, Wincher, Mozcast, Advanced Web Rankings, Mangools, Accuranker, SimilarWeb, Data for SEO, SERPstat, Sistrix, CognitiveSEO, Algoroo, Zutrix, and Wiredboard’s aggregate tool. Each of these shows noticeable fluctuations over the past few days, with some indicating heightened search engine instability.
Overall, it appears this volatility began a couple of days ago, with ongoing discussion in SEO communities and forums highlighting significant ranking movements.
ChatGPT
Perplexity
Gemini AI
Grok AI
