Google's tracking tools are getting noisier. Here's what to check.

Starting in late September, Google's search results began including unrelated listings that are throwing off the rank tracking tools many businesses use to monitor their online visibility. At the same time, Google limited how rank trackers can access certain redirect links. If you've been watching your search rankings and noticed sudden drops that don't match what you see in Google Search Console, these technical changes may be the reason.

Key facts

• As of November 3, about 84 percent of rank tracking errors involved unrelated search results crowding out the tracked page, mostly at position 9 or lower.
• Google put limits on how many redirect links can be resolved from a single results page over a given timeframe, with some data providers reporting they can now resolve only about half of these links as of around October 30.
• PageSpeed Insights now runs Lighthouse 13.6.0, which changes how it simulates page load speed. Your score may shift even if you made no changes to your site.
• Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI said on October 30 that they intend to support a shared robots.txt control for AI training opt-outs, though none support it yet.

Should you trust your rank tracking reports right now?

Not entirely. If your rank tracker shows you dropped several positions overnight with no explanation, the drop might be real, or it might be noise in Google's results. The best way to verify is to check Google Search Console, which shows your actual impressions and clicks for each keyword. Compare the data from your tracker to what Search Console reports for the same query.

Start by looking at any rankings that fell to position 9 or lower since late September. Check whether the pages that replaced yours are about a single word from your search query rather than your actual topic. Also check the URL your tracker stored against where any redirect actually points, especially for changes starting around October 30.

What changed with PageSpeed scores?

Google updated the simulation it uses to predict how fast your pages load. The updated simulated measurements for First Contentful Paint and Largest Contentful Paint will be more accurate. Sites with a lot of JavaScript are more likely to see their scores change from this update. Your PageSpeed score may go up or down even though you did nothing to your site. Before you celebrate an improvement or panic about a drop, compare the Lighthouse version number in your reports. If the version changed, the score difference may come from the new simulation, not from actual changes you made.

What does the AI training opt-out mean for you?

Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI said they will eventually support a single robots.txt rule that lets you opt out of AI training across all three companies at once, instead of writing separate rules for each. However, none of them support this rule yet. If you want to keep your content out of AI training today, you still need to use each company's individual controls. The shared rule is coming, but it is not here.

One thing to note: Microsoft will stop treating the NoArchive and NoCache tags as AI training preferences after March 1, 2027. If you use those tags to block Microsoft's AI systems, you have until that date to switch to Microsoft's newer preference controls.

What should you do this week?

First, check Search Console to compare against what your tracker is reporting before you spend time fixing something that may not be broken. Second, if you monitor page speed, expect your scores to shift. Take a baseline with the new Lighthouse version and compare against that going forward. Third, if you have strong feelings about whether AI systems should train on your content, review your robots.txt file and make sure your preferences are set the way you want them. The shared control is not ready, so use the individual company rules for now.

Sources

• Google Rank Data Issues, Lighthouse Update & AI Opt-Out – SEO Pulse via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern - Search Engine Journal, November 7, 2026

They did the reporting. The writing and the opinions here are ours.