Over the past week, reports from third-party tracking tools have shown less movement in search rankings. However, discussions in the SEO community remain intense, suggesting something unusual might be happening. One possibility is that Google is using new methods to block these tracking tools.
Tomek Rudzki from Ziptie, a service that tracks Google AI activity, confirmed a drop in how often AI overviews are detected.
“He shared on X (formerly Twitter) that Ziptie’s system saw about a 2% decrease, possibly due to Google’s smarter blocking techniques, which go beyond simple CAPTCHA tests. This aligns with observations from others, hinting at a significant change in Google’s approach.
“We’ve observed a decrease (approximately 2 percentage points) in AIO detection rates through Ziptie’s tracking system. It seems Google is blocking AIO checkers in a smart way, far beyond traditional captchas. We are looking for ways to improve the AIO detection rate.
— Tomek Rudzki (@TomekRudzki) January 16, 2025”
I reached out to several other SEO tool providers last night to see if they are noticing the same issue, but I haven’t received any official responses yet. However, there are indications that this problem is more widespread, affecting not just AI Overviews or Ziptie, but potentially other tools as well.
“this seems to be a wider issue with other tracking tools too cc @TomekRudzki
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) January 16, 2025”
Tomek also mentioned, “We are looking for ways to improve the AIO detection rate.” It’s possible that some tools have already found ways to adapt, but for now, most tools continue to report calmer search activity, even today.
Meanwhile, discussions in the SEO community remain intense, with conversations heating up across various platforms.
SEO Chatter
Here’s some fresh discussion from platforms like WebmasterWorld, showing just how animated these conversations have become:
“”Big drop…””
“”Huge drop here…””
“”feels like a penalty was added to our page. So far we are at 66%. Some good sales with organic traffic today but amazon sales are at a new high today. I would say it is time to say good by Google….””
“”Let’s be honest, Google is definitely running an update. The fluctuations are just too extreme.
Last ~7 days have seen some mildly positive trends for a change (after 3 awful Google updates in a row). But I don’t think this trend will last much longer, if at all.””
“”Yesterday was a good day, lets say “normal” day with some good sales. Since yesterday 7:30pm we see a sharp drop and today we started at 39% from normal traffic.””
“”Another day of massive drops here.””
“”They are at it again, huge gaps in orders but same volume of traffic! With other words zombies!””
“”Since the festive holiday is now over every single day has been a slow but consistent drop in traffic. Yesterday was a -13% drop. Day before -14%. Yet during the holiday it was nice and steady and at +50%. What is going on? So tired of the inconsistent traffic. Soon it will be back to August levels once again.””
Google Rank Tracking Tools Showing Stability
Despite the heated discussions in the SEO community, rank-tracking tools continue to show calmer and less volatile search activity. This contrast between the data from the tools and the ongoing chatter raises questions about what’s truly happening behind the scenes.
Eric Mercier also highlighted this issue on his Spanish SEO blog, indicating that others in the SEO community are noticing the same trend. Additionally, Natalia Witczyk shared her thoughts on LinkedIn, writing:
“”Fresh in: Google starts intensifying its anti-scraping measures, introducing stricter protections such as IP blocking and CAPTCHAs. Popular SEO tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs are being impacted.
This move from Google is making data extraction more challenging and costly. As a result, users may face higher subscription fees.
Any of you seeing data issues in your SEO tools?””
“”Patrick Stox from ahrefs, a popular tracking tools, responded to that LinkedIn post saying:
“Ahrefs are being impacted” <- Can you provide evidence to that statement? I’m seeing fresh data and able to pull fresh SERPs. What I’m not seeing are complaints from customers.””
There’s been plenty of discussion on social media and other platforms about some SEO tools experiencing issues in recent days. So far, Ziptie is the only tool provider to confirm this, but it’s still early, and others may share their insights soon. I’ve reached out to several other providers and will keep you updated as I hear back.
“”We use GSC 😇
— DEJAN (@dejanseo) January 17, 2025””
“”PS: This has nothing to do with rank trackers specifically and all to do with LLM training data scrapers.
— DEJAN (@dejanseo) January 17, 2025””
This observation makes sense to me.
Although the tools are reporting calm activity, Google’s behavior still seems highly volatile. Historically, Google has opposed tools that scrape its data and has issued warnings against such practices. Yet, many tool providers have found ways to work around Google’s blocking measures.
What are your thoughts? Have you noticed anything unusual? (I’m posting this early because of my time zone.)
Forum discussion: See more on WebmasterWorld and LinkedIn.
Update: Shay Harel from Similarweb provided the following statement:
“”Hi Sarah,
We’re really sorry for the inconvenience! Some SERP features are still unavailable for tracking, but please know our team is working hard to resolve this as quickly as possible. We truly appreciate your patience and understanding!
— SE Ranking (@SERanking) January 17, 2025””
“”Google is trying to block scraping of their results, here are some statements from French Seo tools, there was another change for the 2nd day in a row :https://t.co/yZhl4pzFlShttps://t.co/ZM52uJYXSxhttps://t.co/INu9BmRQMc
— Damien – Building Free Ahrefs/Semrush alternative (@DamienLusson) January 17, 2025””
“”With a statement from Google: “The Google spokesperson declined to comment on Search Engine Roundtable’s reporting (about tracking tools being blocked).”
More info about recent Google changes that could be contributing to the ranking tools having issues -> Google begins… pic.twitter.com/Jy0AXCw1fK
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) January 17, 2025””
