Recent Comments on Search Engine Roundtable

SpXmtdd commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

Doesn't matter if you're no. 1, 10 or 100. There's now an AI answer, an AD block and maybe even a PAA block before your website. Nobody's bothering to go to a webpage if they can find all the info on google itself. They've turned google search into chatgpt

Comment ID #6846701348 03/06/2026 01:13 am

Sam commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f287ec94ac6563982a2e16ba93463c361e9c7ccd414bec81c69447ee788c8c0.png I agree and I think this is just the new normal with AI algo now or it's wrong.

Comment ID #6846638301 03/05/2026 08:14 pm

Simple Finance Blog commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

Still a lot going on...in a matter of 36 hours, my clients site, for a long tail keyword, ranked 1, 9, 13, NR, 1, 11

Comment ID #6846594942 03/05/2026 05:44 pm

J. Evans commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

A missing referer header is not the same as no referer header. No normal browser sends an empty referer header, not even privacy concerned users. If you see empty referer headers in nginx log file like "Referer: " or "Referer: "" " than those are 99.9% bots and you can safely block them.

Comment ID #6846474187 03/05/2026 01:38 pm

Bender G commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

do{ serp_mixer(); }while(1);

Comment ID #6846463535 03/05/2026 01:17 pm

googleisjoke commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

wpbeginner keeps dropping. someone would say - it's just small publishers, but it's really not. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/58f0ee68fc46dfa57c68a93e25d6501cf40830f69b20e8e8ec3c3db68754fea2.png

Comment ID #6846453020 03/05/2026 12:56 pm

John A. User commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

Most bots I can see, they don't have a refer string but that also catches out privacy focused users. I've got it down to 6000 users now from like 50 thousand. Some ai bots do get through though. CF free stops some, you have to pay for the full list. According to Ezoic, proper visitors number is only a thousand.

Comment ID #6846433462 03/05/2026 12:19 pm

UncleKrusty commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

<blockquote>Maybe AI is already in control</blockquote>Yes, that is also possible.

Comment ID #6846416348 03/05/2026 11:44 am

UncleKrusty commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

I wouldn't put too much faith in these SERP tools. A one day drop on desktop could simply be a reporting glitch.

Comment ID #6846414088 03/05/2026 11:40 am

Ted (or Big T) commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

This update never end?

Comment ID #6846410691 03/05/2026 11:33 am

J. Evans commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

"Bots I suspect to be Google" -> People just don't know what they are talking about or what is actually going on. I see this all the time. If those bots are not spoofed user agent's and really google, then just be glad your website is being crawled and google finds it in their good heart to give you some crawling budget......yes, sarcasm. Most traffic I see is now all bots, be it malicious, scrapers or one of the MANY ai llm training bots. The difference is that in recent months all these a-holes have switched from datacenter ip's to residential or even ISP ip's and are using those to troll all websites and scrape them. Because also recently the normal user agents, ASN networks and ip's ranges have been MASSIVELY blocked by companies and webmasters alike. Some of these residential proxy renting companies use illegal methods to obtain these ip's and rent them out to those ai bot operators and scrapers. And nobody is investigating them for these practices....because they do not find it the same as stealing a car.....it's only "data", right? Get your website on Cloudflare, implement some really good WAF rules and block those sob's. You can even block residential ip call-back proxies with some nifty behavioral rule expressions. At the same time you will probably be shocked how little real traffic you receive to your websites. I hope there is a special place in hell for "G".

Comment ID #6846400400 03/05/2026 11:12 am

Sam commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

There are clearly two teams here, doing opposite things: desktop and mobile, one is increasing while the other decreases. That's not a strategy, that's chaos of it. Crazy. It will all end up in a mess. At 36% more than 1 in 3 mobile searches never reach a publisher website.

Comment ID #6846392561 03/05/2026 10:56 am

Simple Finance Blog commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

Bots I suspect to be Google

Comment ID #6846388654 03/05/2026 10:48 am

Mark Ting commented on Google AI Overviews With Expandable Drop Downs

Google has a blank space, baby. But they aren't going to write your name there...

Comment ID #6846386905 03/05/2026 10:45 am

DataDonkey commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

Maybe AI is already in control with you seeing your page at #2 sometimes and always nowhere to be found by users. AI was not created to save humanity, but to generate profits from enslaving people by taking away their incomes. Whether those incomes come from a normal job or publishing, Google's goal is to strip people of their wealth and drive them into poverty. The American government goes along with this because impoverished citizens become dependent on government and are easy to control because of that dependence.

Comment ID #6846307951 03/05/2026 07:41 am

DataDonkey commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

Change the settings to mobile. USA mobile in the pic below. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d99979038350e1688120a01b29a37463fbd9ef560b598bcfe0371225166f7a26.jpg Advertisers and publishers are moaning, but it doesn't look like Google is changing course.

Comment ID #6846306005 03/05/2026 07:34 am

Sam commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

Back in October 2025 I predicted that AI Overviews would be significantly reduced by March 31st 2026, it is starting to happen. We were never the real point the advertisors were always the point. At the start of February AI Overviews were around 20%. They spiked hard, held at 25% for weeks. Now they are dropping back to where they started. What you are watching is Google testing how far they could push it. The answer came back from advertisers, too far....now they are pulling back. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f932d1ed0aa38a7a1c0910e5c3738b3fc28838d6375c9fb48b8dabfa6dae5c7a.png

Comment ID #6846302388 03/05/2026 07:22 am

Frank Sandtmann commented on Google Knowledge Panels With Color Table Elements

It's interesting to see that a <b>YouTube </b>box always appears in all these examples. Google clearly seems to favor them. 🤔 https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf847bf66c54442c00ada8ed4242937c271a22e212529f0cd412c182c7cee31c.jpg

Comment ID #6846243724 03/05/2026 03:13 am

Zka77 commented on February 2026 Google Discover Core Update Done Rolling Out

Yeah it seems to be a new norm. 2-3 weeks like this. Overall my income isn't much affected. But I totally don't understand what's going on. It's like search results are randomized constantly.

Comment ID #6846233985 03/05/2026 02:20 am

Adolfo Guerrero commented on Google Patent On Sending Searchers To AI-Generated Pages Over Your Site

Great article and very interesting patent. If Google ever implements something like this, it could dramatically change the relationship between websites and search engines. Instead of just indexing content, Google could start dynamically reconstructing pages based on user intent. Definitely something SEOs should keep an eye on.

Comment ID #6846196663 03/04/2026 10:26 pm

John A. User commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

Just to clarify, when you say GoogleBots, do you mean those that identify as GoogleBot or those you suspect as Google. I have so many visitors without referer string, I class those as Bot, not all can be traced back to Google..

Comment ID #6846112250 03/04/2026 05:43 pm

John A. User commented on ChatGPT-5.3 Instant To Show Fewer Links In Web Search Results?

I thought OpenAI was looking to renegotiate to get out of those clauses that Anthropic hated. Expect more news soon. I expect Grok to continue, but individuals to walk. I don't see it as being woke to reject autonomous robots. I do kinda disagree with surveillance. If they use it to catch people, then fine, but it's the reasons I don't like.

Comment ID #6846093687 03/04/2026 05:02 pm

UncleKrusty commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

Before I replied to Dave's post above about seeing more spam in the SERPS, I did a very general product search of a product we make. The results were clean with no spam, but I realize different industries can be wildly different. What I searched for was "Widget Name" and the results were: Amazon People Also Ask Box Discussions and Forums Box Us Popular Products Box Reddit Not bad to be #2, but we're drowned out by those boxes and getting no traffic at all. By no traffic, I mean 0 visits from Google. I'll have to keep an eye on this because one minute we're #2 and the next minute nowhere to be found just like during an update. But this has been going on for weeks and not typical of any algo update I can remember. That's why I think something bigger than the typical algo related flux.

Comment ID #6846048040 03/04/2026 03:28 pm

MrSEO commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

If so then it would make sense why I'm ranking, slop and parasite not getting ahead of me which ultimately is the end game right? I do expect and wishfully hope that AI becomes the judge of content because I know the sites in my industry in the top 10 won't survive. and they don't deserve to.

Comment ID #6846041707 03/04/2026 03:15 pm

UncleKrusty commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

Google has moved to an AI first company, whether for good or not. The game has changed, and I don't expect past algo updates to be a good prediction of future algo updates. Remember Google said we would see more updates in 2025 and that turned out to be false. I would think during an algo to AI transition process users may get one or another until AI has everything within its system. I'm just speculating here, but the length of time this volatility has been going on has to be historic.

Comment ID #6846039167 03/04/2026 03:10 pm

MrSEO commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

maybe, but also the last 4 years google has always released a core update in March. it would make sense. also if ai was running the algo in full then I would expect a massive shift in results probably more so than a regular core?

Comment ID #6846035099 03/04/2026 03:02 pm

UncleKrusty commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

What you describe still could potentially happen during an algo to AI handoff process if the AI yet hasn't applied those variables that suppressed those sites. I just don't recall such a long period of volatility. There has to be a reason why this extreme volatility is going on three weeks straight. Maybe Barry knows if this volatility set a record and if so by how much. If he did, I'm sure it would make a good featured story. :)

Comment ID #6846033931 03/04/2026 03:00 pm

MrSEO commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

This is different, as im seeing 4 completly surpressed sites come back to life and flooding with new keywords and in good positons, this only usually happens on core movements, I would expect sooner or later it woudl run fully ai to actually understand slop, hacked, repurposed etc..the chat bots can see it so I imagine the old algo is outdated. since 2023 its been a mess. with only domain authority being the leading rank win. not experise, reader opintions etc.. and now the web is just one big slop filled ai directory

Comment ID #6846030669 03/04/2026 02:53 pm

UncleKrusty commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

It has been volatile for a long time. Maybe this volatility is NOT the usual tremors before a big algorithm update but Google retiring their ranking algorithm as AI takes over.

Comment ID #6846027956 03/04/2026 02:48 pm

MrSEO commented on Google Search Ranking Volatility Still Heated Into March

this is what always happens before a big update drops.. but you're right it usually ends in losing more traffic lol

Comment ID #6845990880 03/04/2026 01:34 pm

Recent Comments

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

Most Recent Articles

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 5, 2026

Loading Content With JavaScript Does Not Make It Harder For Google Search

Google AI Mode Recipe Widget Sucks Searchers Into AI Frankenstein Recipes

Google AI Overviews Expandable Drop Downs

Google AI Mode Adds More Links To Recipe Sites

Google Adds Build to Order Attribute For Vehicle Listings