The sensor below tracks day-to-day changes in Google’s search results. When the score spikes, rankings are shuffling across a lot of sites at once — usually the sign that an algorithm update is rolling out. The data comes from Semrush Sensor, which scores volatility across US results on a scale of 0 to 10 and updates daily.
Click the chart for the full sensor, with the score broken down by category, mobile against desktop, and the history for recent weeks.
A quiet day. Rankings are moving by the small amount they always do.
Ordinary churn. If your traffic fell on a day like this, the cause is more likely to be your site than Google.
Something is going on. Often an update, confirmed or not. Worth watching your own numbers over the next few days.
A major shake-up, typically a core update. Expect movement for a week or two before things settle.
Compare when your traffic fell with the sensor’s history and with Google’s Search Status Dashboard, where Google lists the ranking updates it confirms.
Falling impressions and positions point to rankings. Steady impressions with falling clicks mean the results page changed around you. Traffic gone from every source at once is a tracking or site problem.
An accidental noindex, a robots.txt that blocks Google, a redesign that changed URLs without redirects, server errors. These cause more drops than algorithm updates do.
Big updates often take a couple of weeks to roll out, and rankings wobble before they settle. Changing a lot mid-rollout makes it impossible to tell what helped.
Tell us your website and what you are trying to rank for. We will look at where you stand today and come back with what is actually holding you back — no charge, no obligation.
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