Author: Ryan Walsh

Date: 08/05/2025

Subject: Google Algorithm Rollout May 2025 | Ranking Flux | Google update

 

Introduction

It’s a strange time to run an SEO agency right now.

Why is that?

I have run a successful SEO agency for the last ten years, and I have never seen an update that appears to be doing what it is doing now.

From what we are experiencing here, there seems to be a mismatch between the average position data we see in Google Search Console and reality.

What do we mean by that?

We have been tracking keywords for years, and over the years, we get a good sense of the daily impressions.

Then, in GSC, sometimes these double and sometimes more at the moment. This Google update is therefore different, it seems to be sustained. Like the stock market, this figure seems to change every 2.5 hours sometimes.

So, what do we think is happening?

We can only speculate, yet as an SEO consultant with over a decade of experience, we would like to take an educated guess at what is happening.

We believe that something significant could be happening to search, perhaps an integration of artificial intelligence into the algorithm, perhaps on a scale not seen before.

We have seen how Google’s Rank Brain was introduced; some believe that was a significant ranking factor, and some speculate it is the third most important. Yet, back in 2015, now in 2025, we think we are seeing AI being integrated into the core algorithm on a much larger scale.

 

Why we suspect there’s a major Google update rolling out in May 2025

We have sat on this for several weeks, like probably every other SEO expert on the planet.

I think it’s just another Google algorithm update; it’s rolling out.

Give it a few days, and it will blow over.

It hasn’t.

At the time of writing, we think this has gone on for over 2 weeks, and what makes this strange is that there doesn’t seem to be a significant amount of conversation about it.

 

What is happening to Google Search Console?

From our experience, we have noticed two significant things: the keyword position data in Google Search Console.

This seems to be off from what is showing in the SERP’s. The second would be what we mentioned earlier, that throughout the day, the impression data fluctuates quite a lot.

 

Frozen in time

 

 

We also seem to see the SERP frozen in time.

As we all know, if you put serious effort into building links and writing content marketing with a good Google E-EAT score, the organic rankings start to budge and move upwards.

However, over the last two weeks, the SERP appeared to be frozen in time.

Despite major link-building campaigns and increased organic traffic, the SERP’s don’t seem to want to budge.

 

Strange results?

Also, as a highly experienced SEO consultant, you get a good sense of your main competitors in each business sector are and what they are working on.

You know their general SEO activity, who they are, etc, and you all compete on the first page to gain more organic traffic.

However, mixed into the results, there seem to be anomalies in Google’s SERP’s right now, such as websites on the first page, but I’m unsure why. For the one business sector, it’s mixing up a construction-related term with a website related to a sport!

This again confirms in our mind that we are seeing ranking flux and Google testing at the current time, and at some point shortly, this will all be fixed.

 

What is it targeting?

At this moment in time, it’s way too early to tell.

Once the rollout has finished, we can look after the dust settles, and businesses will be ranked on the first page. Using 3rd party SEO tools, we can then come up with an idea of who has moved up and who has moved down.

Why is there a mismatch between impression data and keyword positions?

This is something that we do not know. From running this agency for a long time, we have never seen a mismatch between where Google Search Console says a keyword is and where it is in the SERP. Sure, the data is delayed, and it’s not real-time. Yet, rankings for some business sectors have been pretty stable for an extended period, so you get a good sense of where you are ranked at any time.

 

How long has this lasted?

We would say typically for 3 weeks. There was a Google March update, yet in our humble opinion, we would say that this is a different update.

Why is there not much conversation among SEO agencies?

This again is something we are unsure of. We think that one possible explanation is Google update fatigue. It used to be the case, well, when we first started, there were Google updates, yet this targeted spam content or links.

So, we all know about the Google Panda and the Google Penguin updates.

Generally, good SEO experts and agencies welcomed such updates, as they weeded out spam and removed lazy SEO companies.

These updates were welcome.

However, now, well, the updates are what feels like a constant experience, and we, and many other SEO companies, are undoubtedly feeling

Google update fatigue, when it seems as though they are so close together, it’s hard to gauge what is generally happening.

There was a publication in Moz years back, explaining that to succeed at SEO today, you must aim to be 10x better that your competitors.

We think that is the only way forward with search engine optimisation, in that if you want to improve your rankings, you can’t just aim to be a bit better, you must aim to be 10x better. Now we know this is a tall order, but how do you achieve cut through and get to the top of the ladder if Google is constantly changing its algorithm and causing ranking flux?

 

Major AI update?

We think that the Google update could be something to do with AI.

We know that Google is testing AI results, and AI overviews have become a larger part of the SERP.

So, we are speculating and guessing almost at this point. However, we think that AI will shake up the SERP and become a much larger part of Google’s core algorithm, which is now our best guess at this point.

 

What would we recommend doing?

We would recommend doing nothing at this point. That is always our advice when a significant Google update is rolling out, because you need to let the ranking flux end. As of 08/05/2025, we don’t think we have reached the end of the rollout. We believe that the ranking flux is still occurring, and Google is testing a change and hasn’t rolled back the change yet.

As a result, we wouldn’t recommend any knee-jerk reactions, and don’t make any changes too soon to your companies SEO.

The temptation for some companies would be to make significant changes, but don’t do that.

You don’t know how the SERP’S will look once the results have rolled back.

Only when the SERP stabilises can you start to unpick and see what has happened.

 

How our agency can help

We are one of the most knowledgeable and experienced SEO agencies in the U.K.

Ryan Walsh heads the business, and we partner with businesses mainly in the legal business sector.

 

About the Author:

Ryan Walsh started his SEO agency over 10 years ago. We are lucky to have our publications mentioned on the Search Engine Land Recap. We have worked with a wide range of clients from various business sectors.

At the time of writing, we are taking the SEO company in a new direction and working with more and more solicitors and legal practices that need our expert guidance. This highly competitive niche requires the “cream of the crop”, the best in the business in terms of link builders, content marketing copywriters, and technical SEO know-how, and that is precisely what our established SEO business can offer.