Since September 25, some of you have seen changes in XOVI that look wrong:
- Keywords that ranked fine before now show as not ranked (N/R)
- More N/R keywords overall than before
- A sharp drop in OVI and project visibility
You are not imagining it. Here is what is happening, what we are doing, and how to read your data in the meantime.
What happened
Google announced a spam update on September 24 and said the rollout would take about two weeks. Movement showed up on September 25 and peaked on Saturday, September 26. Volatility trackers across the industry recorded it.
Google has not said what the update targets. Early observations from independent SEOs point to templated, programmatic, and AI-generated pages. That is their read, not an official statement. (Source: Search Engine Roundtable)
The rollout is expected to run until around October 8.
Why you see it in XOVI
XOVI collects ranking data from several sources and processes it in our own infrastructure to calculate your rankings, OVI, and visibility.
During this update, Google’s results became very volatile, especially desktop rankings in Germany and the UK. Each time we crawl the results, some keywords switch between their expected position and N/R. Because OVI and visibility are calculated from rankings, those switches lower them.
That means a single N/R does not always mean you lost the ranking.
What we are doing
Our engineers are adjusting the crawlers and the calculations now. As with Google’s own rollout, it can take a few hours to a few days before fixes show in your XOVI data. We are checking every example you send, and we will update this post as things change.
How to read your data this week
- N/R keywords: Check a few manually and in Google Search Console. This tells you whether the ranking is really gone.
- Visibility drop: Compare 14-day trends, not single days. Wait for the fixes to show before you judge the drop.
- Germany and UK desktop: Expect the most noise here.
- Client reports: Hold reports on single-day drops, or add a note about the update date.
- Templated pages: If you manage sites with many templated or programmatic pages, check those first.
- Strategy: Wait until the rollout ends before you change course.
Tell us what you see
Send examples to [email protected]. Include the keyword, country, device, and date, plus a screenshot of the N/R if you can. This is the fastest way for us to find and fix issues.
Closing
Google changes its results for its own reasons. Our job is to show you what is happening in them, and to keep improving the tool when they change. We will keep you posted.