Google search rankings show significant volatility in April

Search engine results pages (SERPs) are experiencing substantial volatility throughout April 2025, with tracking tools indicating particularly intense fluctuations between April 21-23. This marks the second notable period of ranking shifts this month, following earlier movements around April 9 and April 16.

According to data from Semrush Sensor, the volatility score reached 6.2 out of 10 on April 27, placing it in the "high range" category. The tool specifically noted "position changes for numerous sites," indicating widespread impacts across various industries. This follows a similar high volatility score of 6.4 recorded on April 5.

The volatility appears to be affecting websites across numerous categories, with particularly notable impacts in sectors like Arts & Entertainment (8.5), Business & Industrial (8.4), News (9.2), and Sports (9.0) according to the Semrush category breakdown.

Several SEO professionals have reported significant ranking changes during this period. According to comments gathered from industry forums, numerous site owners are experiencing substantial traffic fluctuations, with some reporting drops as severe as 40-50% compared to normal levels.

Technical observations

Multiple search ranking volatility tracking tools have confirmed these fluctuations. According to information from Search Engine Roundtable, tools including Semrush, Advanced Web Rankings, SimilarWeb, Mozcast, Cognitive SEO, Accuranker, Wincher, Algoroo, Mangools, Sistrix, Data For SEO, and SERPstat all showed volatility spikes beginning April 21-22 and continuing through April 23.

The ongoing fluctuations suggest Google may be testing or implementing ranking algorithm adjustments. Notably, specific SERP features have seen measurable changes in occurrence rates during this period:

• AI Overview: 8.11% (+0.37)
• People also ask: 58.28% (+0.33)
• Video: 41.23% (+0.24)
• Sitelinks: 70.64% (+0.21)
• Image pack: 49.52% (+0.15)
• Shopping ads: 1.43% (+0.84)

Simultaneously, several features have shown decreased presence:

• Top stories: 4.27% (-0.45)
• Ads bottom: 1.72% (-0.65)
• Ads top: 0.91% (-0.51)
• Reviews: 21.18% (-0.21)

These changes in SERP feature prevalence may provide clues about the nature of Google's current ranking adjustments and priorities.

Winners and losers

The volatility has created clear winners and losers in search rankings. According to Semrush data from April 27, the top performing domains experiencing position increases include:

1. lgbtmap.org: +11 positions
2. southcoasttoday.com: +11 positions
3. self-help.org: +10 positions
4. genome.gov: +10 positions
5. dominospizza.ph: +10 positions
6. prometheanplanet.com: +10 positions

SEO consultant Glenn Gabe confirmed these observations in a social media post on April 27, stating: "Heads-up. Barry reported on volatility around 4/22-ish and I'm seeing that with a client right now (big-time). I don't know if it will stick, but it's def. worth noting. They saw a ton of volatility on 4/21 and have surged across many queries – including taking the #1 spot for their most important query."

Gabe further added: "On the flip side, I've also had several publishers reach out about major Discover changes the week prior. Some lost most of their Discover traffic (dropping by 90%+ starting on 4/14-ish)."

This indicates that Google's adjustments may extend beyond traditional search rankings to other Google products like Discover, which serves content recommendations to users.

Industry impact

These ranking fluctuations are having measurable business impacts across industries. According to feedback from website owners, multiple businesses are reporting traffic changes without corresponding changes to their sites or SEO strategies.

One website owner noted in an industry forum: "My news site has had record numbers every day since Friday thanks to constant traffic via Discover (this will certainly be over again tomorrow). The store also has a lot of visitors, but no sales, which is getting really weird. Other store owners have experienced the same thing since Friday."

Another site owner commented: "This month has been horrendous. Book sales, zero. Paid memberships, low. Adsense, lowest ever for April. Guest posts, normal. Most page 1 results, gone."

For digital marketers and SEO professionals, these fluctuations create significant challenges in performance analysis and strategy development. The unpredictable nature of these shifts makes it difficult to determine whether traffic changes result from algorithm updates or other factors like seasonal trends, technical issues, or market shifts.

Search ranking volatility typically indicates algorithm adjustments by Google, though the company rarely confirms specific updates unless they are major core updates. The last officially confirmed update was the March 2025 core update, with no additional official updates announced so far this year.

These frequent but unconfirmed adjustments appear to be part of Google's ongoing refinement of its search algorithms. While the company constantly makes minor adjustments to improve search quality, periods of heightened volatility often precede or coincide with more substantial changes to ranking factors.

According to Search Engine Roundtable's Barry Schwartz, the current volatility follows similar patterns observed earlier in April: "The last time we covered a Google ranking update was unofficially around April 16th and then before that around April 9th. We have yet to have second official update in 2025, we had the March 2025 core update but no other official update in 2025 - yet."

The changes appear to be affecting user experience as well. According to forum comments, some users have noted declining search quality. One commenter observed: "Meanwhile, there are more and more complaints on Reddit about how bad Google has become. Normal users seem to catch up with these bad serps and the annoying ads all over the place."

This suggests the current algorithmic adjustments may be creating friction for both site owners and search users, potentially indicating Google is still calibrating these changes to find the optimal balance between different ranking signals.

What marketing professionals should know

For marketing professionals, these ongoing search volatility periods represent both challenges and opportunities:

1. Performance benchmarking challenges: Traditional week-over-week or year-over-year performance comparisons may be skewed during periods of high volatility, requiring more sophisticated analysis approaches.
2. Content strategy implications: Changes in the prevalence of specific SERP features suggest Google may be rebalancing how it values different content types and formats.
3. Competitive landscape shifts: Rapid ranking changes can quickly alter competitive dynamics, requiring more frequent competitor analysis and positioning adjustments.
4. Analytics importance: During volatile periods, detailed analytics beyond simple traffic metrics become crucial for understanding the true impact of SERP changes.
5. Diversification value: Organizations heavily dependent on organic search traffic may face increased risk during these periods, highlighting the importance of traffic source diversification.

Marketing teams should closely monitor these developments while maintaining focus on creating high-quality content aligned with search user needs rather than chasing algorithm specifics.

Timeline of April 2025 search volatility events

• April 5: Semrush Sensor records high volatility with 6.4 score
• April 9: First notable ranking fluctuations of the month observed
• April 14: Major changes to Google Discover traffic reported by publishers
• April 16: Second wave of ranking volatility noted
• April 21-23: Significant ranking volatility detected across multiple tracking tools
• April 25: Additional volatility spike reported by some tracking tools
• April 27: Semrush Sensor shows 6.2 score, remaining in "high" volatility range

As Google continues to refine its algorithms, marketing professionals and website owners should anticipate continued fluctuations while focusing on creating value for users rather than attempting to reverse-engineer specific ranking factors.