- Menu
The Pulse of the search community
Follow Subscribe Subscribe OptionsBrowse By
Browse by Date Find by Category Discover by Author Scan Most Recent See Comments View Tag CloudLight / Dark Mode Settings
Light Dark Use Device Settings Advertise Contact Us Home / Google News / Google Updates / Google I/O 2026 Search Ranking Volatility & Update Google I/O 2026 Search Ranking Volatility & Update May 19, 2026 - 7:41 am 18 — by Barry SchwartzBarry Schwartz / Executive Editor
Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick and a technologist, a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales. Barry is also the founder of the Search Engine Roundtable and the News Editor of Search Engine Land. He is well known & respected for his expertise in the search marketing industry. He only provides consulting services to expert SEOs and also performs search marketing expert witness services. Barry graduated from the City University of New York and lives with his family in the NYC region. You can follow Barry on Twitter at @rustybrick or on LinkedIn and read his full bio over here. 38,431 Articles as barry.schwartz Filed Under Google Updates
Today is Google I/O, where Google announces many of its new features across its products, including Google Search. It is not uncommon to see Google search ranking volatility spike around Google I/O, and that is exactly what we are seeing today - the morning of Google I/O.
Just to be clear, Google did not announce there was an official Google search ranking update - but we cover all the unconfirmed ones as well, so that is what this is, at least so far.
As a reminder, the March 2026 core update started on March 27, 2026 and completed April 8, 2026.
Plus, the deindexing trend we wrote about early has not stopped. More and more sites are noticing a drop in indexing, the "Crawled - currently not indexed" is spiking for many.
But we did see unconfirmed updates May 13th and 14th, May 8th, April 27th and 28th, April 23rd and so on...
The last unconfirmed update kicked off May 13th, as I noted above, but it seemed to last through last Friday.
Google Tracking Tools
Here are what the tools are showing:
Semrush:
Advanced Web Rankings:
SimilarWeb:
Zutrix:
Wincher:
SERPstat:
Sistrix:
Wiredboard's Aggregator of Tools - this report shows the aggregate of the tools above and plots them on one chart:
Accuranker:
Mozcast:
Data For SEO:
Algoroo:
Mangools (looks broken):
I wouldn't be surprised if these tools show the volatility even more tomorrow.
SEO Chatter
I am also seeing some early chatter on this site and WebmasterWorld. Here is some of that chatter:
So after a big boost, Today the sites that got boosted are back down. I guess some kind of testing is goign on.
My site, completely dead in search, Discover, and Google News, suddenly came back to life in Google Analytics. But not in the way I wanted. Google sent hundreds of Singaporean bots to it.
Yesterday my global site's traffic was 33%, today after half my Googleday it's at 10% ... Yep, 10% with none, as in zero, from China, and I always have genuine trade visitors from there.Not yet another update?
Too bad 90% of the Internet are not news sites or shops. I am seeing the worst SERPs ever, the worst rankings, the worst traffic and the most bot traffic ever and it only gets worse.
Anyway, that said, I see the same, and 3 weeks ago been scrapped like never by bots (Germany) and China (Lanzhou). The quantity of bots is massive, and even running ads on facebook I receive message that are also bots...This week situation is big sink around the 11th...
If at least bots could pay and place orders
What are you all seeing?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Copied!Popular Categories
The Pulse of the search community
Follow Subscribe Subscribe OptionsSearch Video Recaps
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos Most Recent Articles
GoogleGoogle Search Now Powered By Gemini 3.5 Flash With New Agentic Features
May 20, 2026 - 7:41 am 0 - by Barry Schwartz GoogleGoogle Tests Preferred Sources Label In AI Mode Citations
May 20, 2026 - 7:31 am 0 - by Barry Schwartz Google Search Engine OptimizationGoogle Adult Property Added To Merchant Listing & Product Variant
May 20, 2026 - 7:21 am 0 - by Barry Schwartz Bing AdsMicrosoft Advertising Updates Import Center, Cross-Account Portfolio Bidding & Bidding Strategy Report
May 20, 2026 - 7:11 am 0 - by Barry Schwartz Search Forum RecapDaily Search Forum Recap: May 19, 2026
May 19, 2026 - 10:00 am 0 - by Barry Schwartz Google Search Engine OptimizationGoogle Adds Markdown Files To Help Docs But Not Used For Search
May 19, 2026 - 7:51 am 0 - by Barry Schwartz
Previous Story: OpenAI / ChatGPT Has A Web Cache Next Story: Google Adds Markdown Files To Help Docs But Not Used For Search - Submit a Thread
- Forum Search
- Awards
- About Us
- Comments Policy
- Advertise
- Contact
The content at the Search Engine Roundtable are the sole opinion of the authors and in no way reflect views of RustyBrick ®, Inc
Copyright © 1994-2026 RustyBrick ®, Inc. Web Development All Rights Reserved.
This work by Search Engine Roundtable is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Creative Commons License and YouTube videos under YouTube's ToS.
Comments
0 comment