Episode Details

E1165: Position #1 on Google is dead, at least as a single, static ranking you can check once and trust.

Joy Hawkins returns to break down a study of 8.1 million Google search results that found organic rankings became 48.7% more volatile after the May 2026 Core Update. 97% of the tracking reports analyzed started shuffling, and two people searching the same phrase at the same time now regularly see different rankings.

The volatility didn't disappear after the update ended. It stayed elevated.

We get into what this means for SEO, rank tracking, local search, AI Overviews, Google's new AI local results, content pruning, scaled AI content, reviews, and measuring whether SEO is actually making money.

Topics we cover: - The 8.1 million-search study that found Google rankings became 48.7% more volatile - Why 97% of the tracking reports studied started shuffling - Why saying "we rank #1" or "we rank #3" is becoming increasingly inaccurate - How two people searching the exact same keyword can see completely different results - Why city + service keywords such as "Denver plumber" were among the searches hit hardest - Why checking a keyword once is no longer enough to measure rankings - How many searches Joy wants before she trusts rank-tracking data - Why top-three visibility across many searches matters more than one recorded position - Why SEOs need to connect rankings to traffic, calls, leads, and revenue - Why Joy trusts Search Console and call tracking more than a single rank-tracker snapshot - How Google's go-to redirects are making life harder for rank trackers and scrapers - Why rank trackers could start contaminating Search Console click data - The theory that increased ranking variation could make CTR manipulation easier for Google to detect - Why Google's traditional local pack, organic results, and AI local results need to be treated as different algorithms - SEO tactics that work in the traditional local pack but lose strength in AI local results - Why keyword-stuffed business names and extended business hours matter less in AI local packs - The three review signals Joy sees affecting traditional local rankings: rating, review count, and review frequency - Why the actual language inside customer reviews matters more for AI searches - How Google uses reviews to answer subjective local searches such as finding a cafe with fast Wi-Fi - Why your Google Business Profile description does not move rankings - How changing copy on your website changes what Google says about your business inside AI results - The risks of self-promotional "best X" listicles - Why a strong differentiator on your landing page matters more now - Joy's experiment deleting roughly 1,000 pages receiving zero clicks - Her experiment comparing Claude-generated content from expert interviews against content written by a human from the same source material - What happened after pruning more than half the content from sites hit with domain-wide ranking losses - Why scaled AI content on a real business website has become far riskier - How businesses can see enormous traffic growth from scaled content before the entire site crashes - Why AI content itself isn't the problem and where Joy sees legitimate uses for AI-generated content

The biggest change is not that SEO stopped working. Sites still dominate search results. The problem is that a single ranking position no longer tells you enough.

You need enough searches to measure how often you appear near the top, then connect that visibility to traffic, leads, calls, and ultimately revenue.

Joy Hawkins is one of the most experienced local SEO testers in the industry, and this episode gets deep into what she is seeing across millions of searches and active client campaigns.

⭐️ Joy's write-up on this - https://www.sterlingsky.ca/the-dynamic-serp-update-may-2026-c