Over the past few weeks, Google has been showing AI Overviews for local packs, leading some businesses to see huge drops in visibility for their Google Business Profile and local listings. Some businesses are seeing 50% declines or more because of the local pack change.
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Google Performance Reports Drop In Impressions/Clicks ~August 12
There are a number of reports that the performance reports, both for Google Search and the Generative AI features reports, are showing a decline in impressions and clicks (AI report does not show clicks) starting around August 12th and 13th. This seems like a bug because the drop seems to be super widespread.
Google Search Downgrading Rankings Of Content Starkly Different From Main Content
Google is now saying it has ranking systems that “aim to understand if a section of a site is independent or starkly different from the main content of the site. This helps us surface the most useful information from a range of sites.” This is the reason that sites like Fortune Recommends, Forbes Advisor and other sections of sites saw declines in Google Search rankings over the past several weeks.
Google Search Ranking Volatility Around October 28th
There may have been another Google Search ranking algorithm tweak around October 28th or so. I am seeing some rumblings both within the SEO community chatter and the third-party Google tracking tools. It seems some are noticing big search ranking swings around October 28th.
