Rank Trackers Are Getting Bad Data From Google

Your rank tracker might be wrong. Google's own data isn't the full picture either.

If you get a monthly SEO report, some of the ranking figures in it may be wrong right now. Nobody made a mistake. Google has started feeding some third-party tools incorrect data on purpose, and the tools can't always tell.

What's happening

Over the past few months Google has made it much harder for automated tools to collect its search results. In Search Engine Roundtable's latest report, Barry Schwartz relays three tactics described by Derek Perkins of Nozzle, a rank tracking tool: wide IP blocking aimed at residential proxy networks, far more captchas, and deliberately serving wrong results to traffic Google suspects is a scraper.

That third one is the problem. Nozzle's own research found that 8% of the search engine results pages (SERPs) it collected since September had been tampered with. The pages look completely normal, but the results have been swapped. Tracked sites appear to fall out of the top 10, and the effect passes within days. So a tool can report a drop that never happened.

So what does that actually mean for you and me?

Think of Google as a shop and SEO tools as people popping in every day to check where your product sits on the shelf. Google has started turning some of those checkers away at the door, making others prove they're human, and for a few, quietly rearranging the shelf while they look, then putting it back once they've gone. The checker writes down what they saw and reports it as fact.

For you, that means a report could say your website has slipped down Google when nothing has changed for real customers searching. It can work the other way too, hiding a drop that did happen. The risk is acting on it: rewriting pages or changing your site to fix a problem that never existed.

Sistrix, Advanced Web Ranking, Morningscore and SE Ranking have all posted notices about data problems.

It probably isn't aimed at SEO tools

Schwartz's view is that Google is targeting AI bots and scraping services rather than rank trackers. Google hasn't confirmed that, but it follows the 2025 change that stopped tools pulling 100 results in one request, so the direction has been clear for a while: Google's results are getting harder and more expensive to read from the outside.

So just use Search Console?

Partly. Google Search Console is Google's own data on your clicks, impressions, average position and the searches people used to find you. It's now the first thing I build reports on.

But it isn't the full picture:

• It doesn't give separate click or query data for AI Overviews or AI Mode, which is where a growing share of searches now end.
• It hides rarer queries for privacy reasons.
• It only keeps 16 months of history.
• It only shows your own site. Seeing competitors was exactly what third-party tools were for.

The bigger issue: data only flows one way

We're in a period where data, automation and AI models are moving faster than ever. At the same time, the biggest platforms keep narrowing access to their own data while asking for more of yours. Google Ads wants your hashed customer data for enhanced conversions. GA4 wants every event you can send it. In return, you get the reporting view Google chooses to give you.

Blocking abusive scraping is reasonable. Quietly serving wrong data is different. Businesses pay for these tools, make decisions based on them, and may never know the numbers were incorrect. If Google doesn't want its results scraped, a sanctioned, paid route to that data would serve everyone better than tampered pages. Independent tools are a healthy check on a platform this dominant, and I think they should be able to coexist with it.

I expect this gatekeeping to get tighter, not looser. So the answer isn't to switch from one source of truth to another. It's to stop relying on any single one and be open to collating data from multiple to paint an overall picture, hard I know!

How I'm reporting for clients now

• Search Console first for clicks, impressions, rankings and queries.
• Trackers as a rough guide only. A sudden drop is unconfirmed until Search Console shows it too.
• Spot checks of key searches in a private browser window.
• Enquiries over rankings. GA4 and form or call tracking show whether organic visits turn into leads, which is what actually pays.

In my own work I've seen tracker data and Google's figures disagree more than once. A sudden drop or spike in a third-party tool now gets treated with a pinch of salt until Search Console backs it up.

Quick check you can do today

1. Compare your tracker against Search Console for your top 10 searches.
2. Treat any sudden drop as unconfirmed until both agree.
3. Ask whoever does your SEO where their numbers come from.

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Want a second opinion? I'll check your latest SEO report against your Search Console data for free in a 15-minute call. Get in touch.