Rank Reports Jumping? Rank Trackers Say Google Sends Them Wrong Results
Did your ranking report show your business drop out of Google's top 10 for a day or two, and then come back? You may not have lost anything. Several rank-tracking companies now say that since September, Google sometimes sends their tools wrong results.
Google has not commented in public on these reports, as far as we and the sources below can see. So this article only says what the companies found and what they think it means.
What rank trackers found
Rank trackers ask Google for search results automatically and record where each business appears.
The rank-tracking company Nozzle published research on October 10. It is based on data that Nozzle collects for its customers in 49 countries. Nozzle says:
- "Requests to Google started failing on September 13."
- From September 20, some results that came back were "poisoned". Nozzle uses this word for a results page where fewer than half of the usual websites for that search appear. The page looks normal, but the results are wrong.
Nozzle's numbers:
- Since September 13, 8.0% of the results pages it checked were poisoned. Before, it was 0.17%.
- The worst days were September 27 to 29, with about a quarter of pages poisoned.
- On a poisoned page, the customer's own website was out of the top 10 in 58.6% of cases. Before, it was 2.7%.
- 77.9% of poisoned pages had their usual websites back within three days.
Nozzle says this is "Google's response to AI scraping", and that rank trackers "are caught in it." This is Nozzle's explanation. Google has not confirmed it. Search Engine Journal reported on the research on October 14 and also found no comment from Google.
What BrightLocal says about local results
On October 16, the local SEO company BrightLocal said it sees the same problem. It calls it "an industry-wide problem affecting all rank trackers and SERP scrapers". It names Semrush and Ahrefs, and the data providers DataForSEO and SerpApi, as also affected.
BrightLocal also says which results are affected in its own data:
| Result type | BrightLocal's finding |
|---|---|
| Normal Google results, desktop | Significantly affected |
| Normal Google results, mobile | Significantly affected |
| Map Pack and Local Finder | Less affected |
| Google Maps | Not affected |
BrightLocal says the problem "doesn't affect page 1" and that you are most likely to notice it below position 10. Nozzle's numbers are different: in its data, poisoned pages often pushed a customer's site out of the top 10. The two companies use different data and methods, so the effect on page 1 is not clear yet.
For a local business, the main point is this: in BrightLocal's data, Google Maps results are not affected, and the Map Pack is less affected than normal Google results.
What to do
- Do not react to a one- or two-day drop. Nozzle found that most poisoned pages were back to normal within three days. Look for a trend over several weeks before you change your Business Profile or website. Nozzle also suggests that you compare with the usual results for that search over the previous weeks, not only with yesterday.
- Look at numbers from Google itself. Your Business Profile performance report shows calls, direction requests and website clicks (Google). These numbers come from Google, not from a rank tracker. Note that they include clicks from Google Ads too. If you have a website, also check Google Search Console. Nozzle says that if a site "disappears" in a report but Search Console still shows impressions and clicks, "nothing happened to the site."
- Ask your rank tracker. Ask your provider if it sees this problem and how it handles it. BrightLocal, for example, asks its customers to contact support about reports that look wrong.
- Be careful with big, sudden changes. This is true for any position, but BrightLocal says it is most likely below position 10.
A note about Localocare
Localocare is a Google Maps tool for local businesses. Like other tools, it gets Google Maps results automatically through a data provider. BrightLocal says it sees no effect on Google Maps results, but we have not checked this ourselves. The same advice applies to our numbers: look for a trend over several checks, not one result.
The free check searches Google Maps from 25 points around your business and shows the 3 places Google shows instead of you.
Note: Localocare is in preview right now. The check shows sample data, and you can't buy anything yet. Live results and payments come later.
Sources
- Nozzle: Poisoned Google SERPs (October 10, 2026)
- Search Engine Journal: Google Is Poisoning Search Results For Rank Trackers (October 14, 2026)
- BrightLocal: Google's anti-scraping measures continue to evolve causing inconsistent rankings (October 16, 2026)
- Google: Business Profile performance metrics