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Poisoned Google SERPs may have distorted rank tracker data in fall 2026

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Research from Nozzle documented search result pages that looked normal but contained altered data when fetched by rank-tracking tools. The issue was observed from mid-September through October 2026 across desktop and mobile results in the United States and other locations. Nozzle reported that on average 22.6% of first- and second-page results were affected, with a peak near 43.5% on September 30, and page 2 was hit disproportionately. The company attributes the pattern to Google's response to AI scraping, though this is its own explanation rather than proven fact. The episode means SEO teams should corroborate sudden rank-tracker changes with other data, such as Search Console, before drawing conclusions.

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