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Google Search Ranking Volatility Heats Up Big Time Starting On February 2nd

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2026年2月5日
5 min read
2nd Big February Google Heats Ranking Search Starting Time Volatility

I was hoping, well, not really, that Google would calm down a bit since we had such a volatile January. But the Google Search results volatility is still very volatile, and the shuffling in those results is still shaking up.

This new spike in volatility began on February 2nd but has continued to heat up over the past couple of days. In fact, I don’t remember seeing so many of the tools showing this much volatility outside of confirmed Google updates, core updates.

To catch you up quickly, I covered a number of unconfirmed Google search ranking updates including January 29th onwayrds and then around January 26th/27th, then January 21st, January 15th, January 12th and January 6th. Prior to that, we had the Google December 2025 core update kick off on December 11, 2025 at around 12:25 pm ET and ended on December 29, 2025 at around 2:05 pm ET. It had two spikes, one on December 13th and the other on December 20th.

Sadly, Google is not commenting on these unconfirmed updates, but we did see some evidence of Google going after self-serving listicles with those previously unconfirmed updates. And Glenn Gabe believes it was beyond listicles and was a Google reviews system, formerly product reviews system, of sorts.

Now we are seeing even more movement.

SEO Chatter

Let’s start with the chatter, there is a lot of it in the comments area here on this site, some on WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World. Most of that chatter is negative, i.e. loss in traffic, but some of it is positive.

Massive drop in traffic today, and I really don’t know why. Worst daily traffic for the past 5 years and it is not even in a core update.

I’ve only seen an increase in sales the last two days. None of it coming from Google though. All my sales have been coming from Bing.

Google traffic is flat and dead across everything.

I had a massive increase in traffic during the December Core Update and a massive drop in traffic during the past couple of weeks. It seems to be slowly recovering, but my earnings are about 50% … It is an old website, US market, more than 15 years old. We used to publish tons of original content. It was a print publication originally, but now we rely on AI. I am a journalist myself, so I don’t simply copy and paste but edit and make sure to add the human imprint… Nevertheless, traffic going up and down without a logical pattern is really making me feel like I need to find a new source of income… stressful times. don’t know what to do anymore 🙁

Seems like Google has come to finally make our organic traffic 0.

Seen massive changes in keywords across all my sites.. some keywords showing big increases but traffic still flat though .. perhaps pre update movement? It does feel something is coming.

It’s been a mess for a couple of days now. major shuffling.

Been seeing the same stuff for the past two years…. a steady gradient of barely perceptible slope in the negative direction.

Traffic has dropped sharply and is holding steady at a minimum level, according to minute-by-minute analytics. Google Discover is bringing in non-targeted visitors from countries that don’t speak my language. They’re doing something with search results and Discover again.

Yes all my sites mass keyword increase however traffic is still flat. it’s unusual that all of my sites are affected at the same time, even more unusual it’s showing positive across them all. maybe they have found a way to eliminate the slop?

yes, the RPM has dropped extremely sharply on all the sites in my company’s portfolio. The traffic remains at yesterday’s level, that is, weak, but I think the quality of the traffic is at rock bottom, which is why the RPM is 50-60% below yesterday’s level

Another solid traffic day across all sites for me especially my global site however it is still noticeable that the West is not as active as it used to be, Eurasia is where it’s at for me. Mr MSFT visited a few times this morning, in fact apart from MSFT, Amazon visited one site with a new IP range … Blocked

I SAW that too. 3 days of very good traffic. But yesterday in the evening: BAM. Big drop.

Google rankings have been pretty volatile lately. Have you noticed similar movement over the past month?

I’m seeing similar fluctuations, especially in competitive niches. Rankings seem to be rotating more even without major SEO changes, which looks more like Google recalibrating quality and intent signals rather than penalties. Sites with strong topical authority and brand trust seem to stabilize faster.

I’ve noticed the same pattern across a few projects. Rankings drop hard, then partially recover without any major changes, which suggests algo testing rather than something site-specific.

Yes Google has been showing noticeable ranking fluctuations recently, especially in competitive niches like affiliate and high-competition keywords. It’s common for positions to shift day-to-day even without on-page changes, and many SEO pros are reporting similar volatility without any official update confirmation.

Yes me too massive drop.

Good Morning Google Land! This is the February 4th edition of “Reviews Update Notes”. Hey, it doesn’t roll like “Core Update Notes” but it fits… 🙂 Also, at least I *think* it was a reviews update. Google stopped announcing reviews updates a while ago since the system is now… pic.twitter.com/uTk7VmAdrF

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 4, 2026