Gary Illyes from Google reportedly said at the Search Central Live Shanghai 2026 event on May 15th that he and Google strongly warns against buying or manipulating mentions brand mentions to try to show up in the AI responses, AI Overviews and AI Mode.
As you know, Google announced the May 2026 core update on Thursday afternoon and it didn’t take long for the update to be felt by the SEO community. Many, not all, but many, started to feel the impact of this core update over the weekend.
Google officially announced the rollout of the May 2026 core update just now, on Thursday at around 11:43 am ET. This core update is expected to take about 2 weeks to roll out. Google said this “is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites.”
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.
Over the past day or so, I am seeing a large spike in signs that there is Google search ranking movement and volatility. This is between the SEO community chatter spiking, as well as some of the tools showing some big volatility swings.
Many of the third-party tracking tools, not all, but many, are showing some heated volatility this morning around Google Search’s ranking positions. I am also seeing some early chatter within the SEO industry about movement in their rankings.
I am seeing new signs of the Google search ranking volatility heating up. When I reported on it last week, the tools began to show volatility trend upwards. But now, while some of the tools are calm, the chatter within the forums has spiked over the past 24 hours or so.
I know it has been a while since I covered the Google Search ranking volatility and algorithm twitches but I am now seeing signs of the volatility heating up. These signs are mostly coming from the tools; the community seems busier with other things.
Google’s March 2026 broad core update has officially completed rolling out. Google announced this via X this morning and the Search Status Dashboard has been updated to document the rollout. The update took 12 days and 4 hours to complete…
Google’s March 2026 broad core update has officially completed rolling out. Google announced this via X this morning and the Search Status Dashboard has been updated to document the rollout. The update took 12 days and 4 hours to complete…