Home / Google News / Google Updates / Google Search Ranking Volatility & Chatter Heats Up October 20 & 21

Oct 21, 2026 - 7:51 am

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Google Search rankings seem to be getting super volatile again, this is alongside the search industry chatter that has been spiking to unusual levels over the past 24 hours. As a reminder, the third-party tracking tools may still be struggling to track the volatility , but when I look at that, coupled with the industry chatter, I think we have an unconfirmed Google search ranking update going on.

We are all expecting the big core update to touch down soon, many thought we'd have a core update by now, and some are expecting it later this month. Either way, a core update is coming soon and maybe this is Google testing the waters.

We last covered an unconfirmed Google update on October 16th , which felt big.…