Google Is Feeding Ahrefs and Semrush Fake Rankings. Here’s What to Trust Instead — Transcript

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1. 0:00This is probably the most important
2. 0:01thing in SEO right now and very few
3. 0:03people are addressing it. A lot of the
4. 0:05results for the biggest SEO tools,
5. 0:07SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz, the results are
6. 0:11completely messed up. You might see in
7. 0:13one of your campaigns you lost all your
8. 0:15rankings. Everything's cleared out,
9. 0:17gone. Line just goes right down. But
10. 0:20then, you check Google Search Console,
11. 0:22you see nothing is wrong. You're
12. 0:23completely stable. Your rankings are as
13. 0:26they've always been. Maybe they've even
14. 0:27climbed, maybe they've even gone up.
15. 0:29You're getting just as much traffic as
16. 0:31you were before. Nothing's wrong. You
17. 0:33might look at a SERP, at a search engine
18. 0:35results page in an SEO tool for your
19. 0:37brand name and see that your website is
20. 0:41not on page one. And actually, when
21. 0:43you're looking at this search engine
22. 0:45results page, you're seeing a completely
23. 0:47different niche that's nowhere related
24. 0:49to your brand. But then, when you go
25. 0:51check on Google Search Console,
26. 0:53everything's completely stable.
27. 0:55Nothing's wrong. Your website is in
28. 0:57ranking number one for your brand name.
29. 0:59I've been seeing this myself. I've been
30. 1:01getting several emails and DMs every day
31. 1:05about it from concerned SEOs and
32. 1:07marketers. Ahrefs, one of the top SEO
33. 1:09tools, has a notice at the top of their
34. 1:12platform. We're currently seeing changes
35. 1:14in how Google serves search results,
36. 1:16which may cause inconsistencies in some
37. 1:19SERP data. Our team is actively working
38. 1:21to minimize the impact and improve data
39. 1:23accuracy. People who are trying to do
40. 1:25their own SEO are confused because most
41. 1:28SEO tools are not being as forward as
42. 1:31Ahrefs or SEO and marketing agencies,
43. 1:34they have to explain to clients why one
44. 1:36of these platforms says that all of the
45. 1:38clients' rankings are lost. This is a
46. 1:40daily occurrence for SEOs. So, on this
47. 1:44episode of the show, I'm going to
48. 1:45explain why things are so messed up
49. 1:48right now. What is causing this? If
50. 1:50there's any hope for stability to
51. 1:52return. And what SEOs are doing now with
52. 1:55all this wrong data in the major
53. 1:58third-party SEO tools. That's what I got
54. 2:00for you on this episode of the show. All
55. 2:02right, what's causing this? After
56. 2:04Google's copyright case against SERP API
57. 2:06was dismissed in July, Google had to
58. 2:09figure out how to stop AI companies from
59. 2:11scraping its results. AI companies were
60. 2:13doing this to QA their own small indexes
61. 2:17and their own retrieval algorithms. So
62. 2:19to make sure that their retrieval
63. 2:21algorithms are good enough comparing
64. 2:23their results to Google's results
65. 2:25because Google has decades of
66. 2:27experience. And AI companies were using
67. 2:30scraped Google results just in general
68. 2:32to improve their output. Google, on the
69. 2:34other hand, views these AI companies as
70. 2:36competitors. So Google shifted to a
71. 2:38bunch of technical measures that are
72. 2:40causing SEO tools to be collateral
73. 2:42damage. These are the top technical
74. 2:44measures that's messing up the SEO
75. 2:46tools. There's wide IP blocking aimed at
76. 2:49the proxy networks that rank trackers
77. 2:51scrape through. There's go-to redirects.
78. 2:54So if you hover over a link in Google
79. 2:56search, you now see a {forward slash}
80. 2:58go-to redirect. Previously, you just got
81. 3:01the exact link. These are server-side
82. 3:03redirects. This means that they give
83. 3:05Google another place to apply captchas,
84. 3:08tokens, IP reputation, session checks.
85. 3:12Google is applying captchas, too.
86. 3:14They're applying all of these, but many
87. 3:15more captchas. Google can tell that the
88. 3:18session clicked 80 of these go-to links
89. 3:20in 2 seconds with no mouse jitter, looks
90. 3:23like a bot. The biggest thing is there
91. 3:25is fake data in the results. Google is
92. 3:28serving
93. 3:32wrong SERPs. This is the most damaging
94. 3:34one. The tools aren't failing outright,
95. 3:37they return results that look normal
96. 3:39because Google is giving them the wrong
97. 3:42results. That's why you might see, if
98. 3:44you're checking a SERP through a
99. 3:46third-party tool, that your website is
100. 3:48nowhere on page one for its a name, even
101. 3:51though everything is refined, the SEO
102. 3:52tool is just getting poisoned data. Here
103. 3:55community reactions. Some of these I
104. 3:57shared a couple episodes ago, others I
105. 3:59didn't. This is from Charles Float,
106. 4:01friend of the podcast. He's been on many
107. 4:03times. Super well-known SEO. He said,
108. 4:06"Ahrefs, SEMrush, and all the rank
109. 4:08trackers seem to be bugging out big time
110. 4:11right now versus the actual SERPs. Looks
111. 4:14like Google could be implementing
112. 4:15another anti-scraping measure after they
113. 4:18lost the SERP API court case. It seems
114. 4:20to just fill the entire first page with
115. 4:23user-generated content or YouTube videos
116. 4:25instead of actually surfacing the real
117. 4:28ranked pages. I don't personally believe
118. 4:30it's anything to do with spammers or
119. 4:32hackers. It's more to do with them
120. 4:34trying to protect their own scrape data.
121. 4:36And I know it's been a pain fixing all
122. 4:38of this for the SEO and rank tracking
123. 4:40companies, but looks like there's a lot
124. 4:42more hurdles in front of them to come."
125. 4:44This is from Kewal Shah, who said,
126. 4:47"Yeah, I noticed it started like a week
127. 4:49and a half ago. It's pretty bad."
128. 4:51Somebody else, "I noticed that it's
129. 4:52whacked." This is from a user Tam, who
130. 4:55said, "Noticed my custom scraping
131. 4:57scripts throwing 429s and phantom DOM
132. 5:00wrappers since yesterday. Google is
133. 5:02walling off raw text to force everyone
134. 5:04into their own search console API while
135. 5:07feeding AI overviews with Reddit
136. 5:09threads. Rank tracking by raw position
137. 5:11is basically broken right now." Last
138. 5:13comment I'll share is from Austin
139. 5:15Anthony, who said, "Good reminder to
140. 5:17check search console before reacting to
141. 5:19a tracker drop. It's the only one that
142. 5:22sees what real users got. Could
143. 5:25stability return? Could these
144. 5:27third-party SEO tools work properly once
145. 5:31again?" I actually think it's possible.
146. 5:33I think it's possible that Google could
147. 5:35give trusted companies an official way
148. 5:38to get search data. And there's actually
149. 5:40a precedent for this. Google already
150. 5:42shares its search results with partners.
151. 5:44It's called search syndication. Ecosia,
152. 5:47which is a search engine that uses its
153. 5:49profits to fund tree planting and
154. 5:52environmental projects, has served
155. 5:54Google's results and Google Ads to many
156. 5:56of its users since 2023 through a deal
157. 5:59with Google. And according to Barry
158. 6:01Schwartz, one of the most well-known
159. 6:02people in SEO, he was on the podcast a
160. 6:05week and a half ago, he shared this. He
161. 6:07said Google already has a private API
162. 6:09for some select partners. It's hard to
163. 6:11get into and probably expensive, but it
164. 6:14exists. Google has given an API to SEOs
165. 6:16before. It launched a search API back in
166. 6:192002. SEOs used it for years to track
167. 6:23rankings. Google stopped handing out new
168. 6:25keys in 2006 and shut it down in 2009,
169. 6:28but it happened. Lastly, in 2025, as
170. 6:31part of the Google DOJ antitrust case,
171. 6:34the judge required Google to give
172. 6:36syndicated search results and ads to
173. 6:39{quote} {unquote} qualified competitors.
174. 6:41So, companies competing with Google in
175. 6:44search or AI. Google is appealing, but
176. 6:46it's possible these syndicated search
177. 6:48results could begin late this year or
178. 6:51early next year. This means, I'm going
179. 6:53to spell it out, this means that there
180. 6:55is a system being built for vetting
181. 6:57companies and licensing them Google's
182. 7:00results. So, if competitors can be
183. 7:02vetted, rank trackers could be too. For
184. 7:04those reasons, I'm optimistic. I'm
185. 7:06optimistic that stability will return
186. 7:08for these third-party SEO tools. Now,
187. 7:10what to do in the meantime? This is what
188. 7:12people are doing. This is what I would
189. 7:14recommend doing. The first one, this one
190. 7:16actually I haven't tested. This is not
191. 7:18an endorsement. It's just something I
192. 7:20came across in my research. I want you
193. 7:22to take this with a grain of salt
194. 7:24because the company that put out this
195. 7:26press release could easily be lying. SEO
196. 7:28companies lie all the time. But,
197. 7:30Ranktracker, which is a UK-based rank
198. 7:32tracking tool, they put out a press
199. 7:34release claiming they restored full
200. 7:36Google top 100 keyword tracking as of
201. 7:39October 1st. While other providers were
202. 7:42still dealing with missing positions and
203. 7:44inconsistent data. If this is true
204. 7:46though, it's great news because it means
205. 7:48the biggest SEO tools, they'll catch up.
206. 7:50They'll figure it out. And I will say,
207. 7:52I'm already seeing these third-party SEO
208. 7:54tools make improvements. 3 weeks ago,
209. 7:56Moz was showing a completely wrong serp
210. 8:00for the branded search compact keywords,
211. 8:02my SEO course. Completely wrong. But as
212. 8:04of a week or two ago, it's been fixed.
213. 8:06So these SEO tools are making
214. 8:08improvements. Some more practical things
215. 8:10to do if you doubt the reliability of
216. 8:12your SEO tools. Biggest one is just use
217. 8:14Google Search Console as a source of
218. 8:16truth for your own positions. Google
219. 8:18Search Console is Google literally
220. 8:20giving you their data about how your
221. 8:23website appears in Google Search. Again,
222. 8:25it is the source of truth. You can use a
223. 8:27Google Search Console API, you can make
224. 8:30custom reports, you can save historical
225. 8:32data since you can't get data past 16
226. 8:35months in Google Search Console, so you
227. 8:36have to save it yourself. You can get
228. 8:38keyword data from Google Search Console
229. 8:40for keywords that you're already ranking
230. 8:42for. And this has been a best practice
231. 8:44for decades because you get the best,
232. 8:46most reliable data. For example, you
233. 8:49might see that you get a lot of clicks
234. 8:51for a high-intent, bottom-of-funnel
235. 8:54keyword where you're only in position
236. 8:56nine for that keyword. You're only in
237. 8:57position nine, but you're getting a ton
238. 8:59of clicks. So you know that if you were
239. 9:01in position one, you'll really get a lot
240. 9:03of clicks. It'll really benefit you. And
241. 9:05then you see you have no content for
242. 9:07this keyword. The page that's ranking is
243. 9:09unrelated to the keyword or mostly
244. 9:11unrelated to the keyword. That's great.
245. 9:13Great opportunity. Make a page for that
246. 9:15keyword. I'd recommend if you're seeing
247. 9:17serps that don't make sense or that you
248. 9:19don't trust, cross-checking search
249. 9:22engine results pages manually. Look at
250. 9:24the results yourself. Also, keep
251. 9:26focusing on relevance. Keywords that are
252. 9:28targeted properly still land on page
253. 9:30one, especially if your site has good
254. 9:33historical performance and you're
255. 9:35working on building authority. The
256. 9:37fundamentals have not changed and if
257. 9:39anything actually, the big companies are
258. 9:41less likely to adapt fast. This
259. 9:44uncertainty could create a vacuum where
260. 9:46competitors are a lot slower because
261. 9:49they trust their SEO tools less and so
262. 9:51they're running around like chickens
263. 9:52with their heads cut off in panic and
264. 9:55you come in, you move fast. So actually
265. 9:57this could make SEO less competitive.
266. 9:59This is a 1979 Warren Buffett quote,
267. 10:02"Uncertainty actually is the friend of
268. 10:04the buyer of long-term values." So in
269. 10:06SEO, values are relevance, authority,
270. 10:09satisfying search intent above the fold.
271. 10:11That means before people start
272. 10:12scrolling, so you're throwing off good
273. 10:14behavioral signals that Google sees.
274. 10:16Basically, if you're still doing the
275. 10:18best practices, you're going to win
276. 10:20regardless of what the third-party SEO
277. 10:22tools say. And this one's super
278. 10:24important, keyword search volume
279. 10:26estimates are unaffected by the
280. 10:28blocking. The SEO tools mostly build
281. 10:30search volume estimates from Google
282. 10:32Keyword Planner data plus clickstream
283. 10:35data, which is anonymized browser data
284. 10:37that they buy. I had a founder for one
285. 10:39of the top clickstream data companies on
286. 10:41this podcast. The company is Datos and
287. 10:43they were acquired by Semrush. And if
288. 10:45you want to get more keyword research
289. 10:46methods, episode 1,169
290. 10:49of this podcast, how SEOs actually find
291. 10:52keywords in 2026, what Reddit gets right
292. 10:55and wrong, that's a great episode and
293. 10:56you can get amazing more keyword
294. 10:58research methods there. But the biggest
295. 11:00thing is the fundamentals haven't
296. 11:01changed. If you're doing what has worked
297. 11:03for decades, just because third-party
298. 11:06SEO tools could be giving misleading
299. 11:08data when it comes to rankings and
300. 11:11SERPs, keyword volume data is still
301. 11:13reliable, search console data hasn't
302. 11:15changed, completely reliable. Many SEO
303. 11:18tools are gradually making improvements,
304. 11:20but the other good news is if you are
305. 11:22seeing these crazy drops in a
306. 11:24third-party SEO tool, good chance Google
307. 11:26Search Console isn't going to reflect
308. 11:28that unless, you know, the drops are
309. 11:30real and you've been doing SEO wrong.
310. 11:32But you know what? If you want to learn
311. 11:33how to do SEO right, Compact Keywords,
312. 11:36my SEO course I spent a year making. An
313. 11:38SEO course about how to do search engine
314. 11:40optimization that targets people at the
315. 11:43bottom of the purchasing funnel. People
316. 11:45who are looking to buy, to use
317. 11:47something, to make a discovery call.
318. 11:48They know what they want, but they don't
319. 11:50know the brand that's going to give them
320. 11:51what they want. So, I show how to find
321. 11:53these keywords, how to target them with
322. 11:55conversion-based SEO landing pages, not
323. 11:58outdated blog posts, how to structure
324. 12:00your site for these pages, how to build
325. 12:02links, how to do an SEO technical audit,
326. 12:04examples in every niche, templates,
327. 12:06Google Docs, Google Sheets. If you want
328. 12:09to save years learning SEO that makes
329. 12:11money, that's what my course is about.
330. 12:13compactkeywords.com.
331. 12:15You're going to love it. And that's
332. 12:17everything that I got for you on episode
333. 12:191,201
334. 12:21of the podcast. This is 1,201
335. 12:24days in a row doing this show. Let's go.
336. 12:28If you watch this on YouTube, thank you
337. 12:30so much for watching. If you listened on
338. 12:32Spotify or Apple Podcasts, thank you so
339. 12:35much for listening. And I will talk to
340. 12:37you again tomorrow. Bye now.