Ranking chatter surged again on September 15, days after some large sites that fell around September 4 reportedly recovered on September 13. Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz says the spike began within hours and had not yet fully registered across third-party volatility trackers when he posted.
Practitioners describe sharp swings concentrated in the UK, new keyword sets replacing previously ranking pages, and spam appearing on page one. Several also flagged irrelevant AI Overviews results and inconsistent Google Discover traffic. These are forum reports from individual sites, not measured data.
Google has not confirmed an update. Schwartz says he suspects one is underway but doubts Google will acknowledge it. Given how quickly the September 4 volatility reversed, teams should hold off on major changes and instead log today’s rankings now as a baseline for comparison once (or if) the tools converge on a clear signal.
According to Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz, reporting September 15, 2026.
