Poisoned SERPs hit 25% of tracked keywords; AccuRanker explains Google's anti-scraping purge
lilyraynyc · x · 2026-10-19
AccuRanker details how it detected and handled Google's "poisoned" SERPs, which began late September: result pages that look normal but serve a different set of organic results. Key findings:
- On day one, over 25% of monitored keywords returned swapped page-1 results; within two days AccuRanker cut that below 2%, and under 1% by mid-October.
- Google appears to decide per browser session, not per keyword, so two simultaneous searches can get different pages.
- Google tightened detection again on October 15, mostly mobile; trackers adapted.
- Google has made no statement; one plausible explanation is anti-scraping measures aimed at AI answer engines, with rank trackers caught in the middle.
The article also explains how to spot poisoned SERPs in your own ranking data.
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