Google rankings are shaky, and no update is confirmed

Google rankings got shaky again on October 20 and 21, 2026. Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable says it looks like an update Google has not confirmed. A big core update is still expected soon. For a small business, the safe move this week is to leave the site alone and judge it later by calls and bookings.

What Barry reported

Barry wrote it up on Search Engine Roundtable on the morning of Oct 21, 2026. He wrote that rankings "seem to be getting super volatile again". He also wrote that chatter from site owners had been "spiking to unusual levels over the past 24 hours". His read is that "we have an unconfirmed Google search ranking update going on".

He also wrote that people are "all expecting the big core update to touch down soon". Some thought it would be out by now, and some expect it later this month. He wonders if this is Google "testing the waters". He notes that the tools that track rankings may still be struggling to keep up.

The last unconfirmed update SER covered was on October 16. Before that, Google's September 2026 spam update ran from September 24 to October 8.

What site owners are seeing

The comments Barry pulled from his site and WebmasterWorld don't agree. Some say traffic from Search and Discover died. Some say traffic got better. One owner said traffic is up 70% over last October.

One comment stood out to me. The owner said rankings were "better than ever" and impressions were way up. But clicks were down about 60 to 70 percent. They guessed that AI Overviews grew in their category. That is their guess, and the article does not check it.

What we don't know

Google has not confirmed an update. The article does not say which kinds of businesses are hit, or if local results moved. Google has not said when the core update will land.

What Google says to do after a core update

Google has a page on core updates and your website. It says most sites don't need to worry about core updates. It says to wait until the update has finished rolling out. Then wait at least a full week before you look at your numbers in Search Console. After that, compare a week after the update with a week before it started.

Google says a small drop, like from spot 2 to spot 4, does not call for big changes. It says to avoid changing pages that already do well. It also warns against "quick fix" changes, like pulling something off a page because you heard it was bad for SEO.

How I read it

Weeks like this make owners want to rebuild. A new homepage or a pile of new pages feels like doing something. But if you change a lot while rankings swing, you can't tell later what helped and what hurt. The one comment above shows why rank alone is a weak number. A higher spot can still bring fewer people to your door.

What I would do

I would not rebuild the site this week. I would write down the date and keep working on the business.

When things calm down, I would compare calls, bookings, and form fills to the same weeks last month. Where you rank comes second. If those numbers held up, I would leave the site as it is.

The one thing worth checking now is that nothing on the homepage keeps it out of search. A noindex setting can keep a page out of results. A rule in robots.txt can block search engines from the whole site. That is a short check, not a rebuild.

What to do next

SignalGrade is the free check from Gman Creations for whether search engines and AI tools can read your homepage basics. It looks at seven basics, like the page title, the noindex and canonical settings, and the robots.txt file. It reads your homepage, robots.txt, and llms.txt once, when you ask. Every finding shows its source. No account and no card. It does not track rankings or ask AI assistants about you, so it can't tell you why you moved this week. An older post covers Google's spam updates and low-effort pages. Book a discovery when you want a human look: cal.com/shohgman/discovery.

A core update is still expected soon. Will you know which numbers to look at when it lands?

FAQ

Is there a Google update right now?

Google has not confirmed one. Search Engine Roundtable reported big ranking swings and chatter on October 20 and 21, 2026, and thinks an unconfirmed update is running.

When is the next core update?

Google has not said. Barry Schwartz wrote that many expect it soon, and some expect it later this month.

Should I change my site if my rankings dropped this week?

Google's core update page says to wait until an update finishes, then wait a full week before you compare. It says a small drop does not call for big changes.

Why would clicks drop when rankings go up?

One site owner quoted by SER saw that and guessed AI Overviews grew in their category. The article does not confirm the cause.