Unconfirmed Turbulence Keeps Rolling
Google results have been unsettled for a full month. Our tracker has stayed in the moderate-high range since late September, and it hasn't cooled off. Today's early score of 7.8/10 is partial, and the trackers disagree sharply: Wincher and Serpstat show 10/10, while SimilarWeb shows just 3.2.
The industry is seeing the same thing. Search Engine Roundtable reported rankings getting "super volatile" again alongside industry chatter spiking to unusual levels on October 20-21, but still no official core update. Other coverage noted that SEMrush, Mozcast, Algoroo, and Sistrix reported sharp shifts in search positions across various sectors. One site owner's comment captures where search is right now: rankings and impressions way up, but clicks down about 60-70%.
AI answers are part of the reason. A Semrush study found AI Overviews appeared for 88% of commercial keywords tracked in August, nearly double the 45.75% recorded in September 2025. A higher ranking doesn't help much if an AI summary answers the question and the searcher never clicks through.
Patching PHP? Don't Wreck Your Rankings
PHP is the code that runs much of the web, including WordPress. Its developers shipped emergency fixes on October 21 for two critical flaws that can let attackers run code without logging in. Google responded quickly. If you take your site offline to patch, serve a 503 from outside PHP and keep robots.txt reachable. A 503 is a status code that tells Google the outage is temporary. Mueller added that the 503 can be served outside PHP, through DNS changes or a CDN.
Keep the downtime short. Google's guidance recommends a 503 for urgent shutdowns of 1-2 days, a few days at most.
What to Do
- Patch PHP now. Ask your host if you're unsure.
- Use a 503 status code for any downtime, never a 404 or a blank error page.
- Track clicks in Search Console, not just rankings. That's where AI Overviews show their effect.
