Google: Minor Fluctuations Normal, Nothing to Worry About
It’s not often that Google releases a pearl of SEO wisdom that can be called genuinely reassuring. Usually, it’s a pretty relentless tale of doom, gloom, and downright terrifying algorithm updates.
But when Google’s John Mueller recently took to the airwaves to discuss performance fluctuations, he had a few comforting words to share.
His comments came as part of the Google ‘Ask Googlebot’ video series, in which he sought to clarify why Search Console graphs have a habit of fluctuating, even when no updates are being made to the website in question.
SEOs and website answers have long been puzzled as to why such fluctuations occur when they do nothing differently. According to Mr Mueller, it’s all perfectly normal. And just as long as the fluctuations are minor and you haven’t been tweaking or redeveloping your site, it’s also nothing to worry about.
A (Sort of) Simple Information
In short, Mr Mueller said there are so many moving parts behind the scenes at Google that day-to-day fluctuations were inevitable.
For example, if your site’s pages are crawled by one Google data centre one day and a different centre tomorrow, this could result in a notable fluctuation in the Search Console. You’ve nothing on your end, but slight differences on Google’s side of the picture can have a noticeable effect.
As Mr Mueller put it in his own words:
“Google Search includes many incredibly complex and interconnected systems. Even small changes on one side can have a surprisingly visible effect. These changes tend to even themselves out overall. But when looking at the individual parts, they can still be noticeable.”
“For example, if crawling from one data centre is minutely faster than usual, that could change the content we have available for indexing and, in turn, the content shown in search results.”
“Or perhaps you write an insightful social media post that suddenly becomes important, and our system is more focused on that. Either way, any of this could cause fluctuations in the charts.”
It could also be that the site in question is experiencing fluctuations in traffic coming from sources other than Google, which would affect the Search Console graphs.
No Reason to Panic
Therefore, the advice is simple—no knee-jerk reactions are needed. Small fluctuations that occur occasionally are no real cause for concern.
By contrast, significant changes in Search Console graphs or fluctuations that become ongoing trends could indicate something more serious.
Explained concisely by Mr Mueller:
“What can you do when you see the graphs fluctuate like this? First of all, don’t worry about the little changes. These are normal for any website. Things go up a bit, things go down a bit, that’s all fine.”
“Second, look out for trends. Has the graph been continuously heading in one direction over a few weeks? If so, that’s often a sign of broader changes overall.”
“Watch out for big spikes when the graphs change significantly over a short period. That could be a sign of a serious change. It might be a good change, but I’d recommend double-checking.”
Or, to put it another way, if there really is something to panic about, you’ll know it for sure soon enough. Otherwise, there’s no real reason to take action, but watch how things play out.
This could save SEOs, website owners, and ecommerce businesses a great deal of time, money, and stress.