The Hidden Danger Lurking in Google Rankings: What Semrush Data Reveals Next
Ever wonder if Google’s search results are playing tricks on us? Lately, SEO pros across the board have noticed something pretty odd — automated searches pulling up results that look perfectly normal at first glance but hide some serious weirdness beneath the surface. Picture this: you’re hunting for a baby stroller in Brazil, and instead, you get dental equipment pages because they share the same word in Portuguese. Confusing? Absolutely. Frustrating? You bet. It turns out this “poisoned” phenomenon is sweeping through the data providers we all rely on, likely a side effect of Google tightening the reins on massive data scraping for AI. As someone who’s seen the SEO landscape twist and turn more times than I can count, this shift feels like yet another curveball—but hey, that’s the game. In this shifting terrain, how do we keep delivering spot-on insights and keep our rankings intact? Let’s dive into what’s going on, what’s being done about it, and how you can stay ahead without losing your mind. LEARN MORE.
Recent industry research and discussion in the SEO community have highlighted changes in how Google responds to some automated search requests. In certain cases, these requests may return results pages that appear normal but differ from what a typical user would see.
This is an industry-wide issue affecting data providers across the SEO space. Industry discussion, including coverage from Search Engine Roundtable, suggests a likely driver is the effort to limit large-scale data collection for AI systems. Google hasn’t commented publicly.
What we’re seeing
Poisoned SERPs generally take two forms. In some cases, the results page as a whole is clearly off, with results that don’t match the query even on page one. In others, the page looks normal at first, but further down the results, it includes pages that only loosely match the search.
For example, a search in Brazil for a specific baby stroller model returned a dental supply store’s equipment page, because both share the Portuguese word “carrinho.”
What we’re doing
Our systems detect clearly invalid results during collection and exclude them from our database. We’ve also adjusted our data sources based on data quality and added validation checks that flag potentially inaccurate results and collect them again. We continue to refine these processes as search engine behavior evolves.
If you notice something unusual
If you see unexpected ranking changes, especially for keywords unrelated to your pages, compare against your own data, such as Google Search Console.
Contact our support team with the domain and keywords involved, and we’ll review your data with you.
Looking ahead
Search engines regularly update how their results are displayed and accessed, and we expect that to continue. Our priority is giving customers data they can rely on, and we’ll keep refining how we collect and validate it.
Visibility today spans traditional rankings and AI-generated answers, and we’ll continue investing in both areas because customers need a reliable view of each. We’re committed to helping you understand how your brand and your competitors show up across Google’s results, AI Overviews, and AI platforms like ChatGPT.
We’ll share updates if anything changes for Semrush users.
This statement reflects our understanding as of October 27, 2026, and may be updated as we learn more.
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