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It has now been 76 days since Google’s December 2025 Core Update finished rolling out, and approximately 183 days since the August 2025 Spam Update.
Yet since early January 2026, rankings have been unusually unstable across multiple verticals. Several waves of “unconfirmed” volatility have been reported by the SEO community, but around 12 February we saw a particularly clear spike in turbulence. From roughly 14 February onward, volatility has remained consistently high — not just flaring up for a day or two, but sustaining elevated levels.
This is not typical background noise.
Tracking Tools Are Near Maximum Volatility
If we look at Semrush Sensor, volatility scores have recently hovered at the upper end of the scale, indicating broad, system-level adjustments rather than ordinary day-to-day ranking fluctuations.
Semrush Sensor measures how much SERPs shift for a fixed set of keywords, scoring volatility from 0 to 10. High readings signal aggressive reshuffling of rankings. At the time of writing, the score sits at 9.4 — a level typically associated with major updates.
Wincher’s volatility index shows a similar pattern, with extended periods of “very high” SERPs rather than isolated spikes. When multiple tracking systems show synchronized turbulence over time, it rarely points to coincidence.
Some sources suggest volatility may be cooling slightly. However, within iGaming specifically, we continue to see significant movement in both directions.
Are We in a New (Unconfirmed) Update?
This level and duration of instability almost always signals a substantial adjustment in Google’s ranking systems — whether or not Google chooses to label it a “core update” or “spam update.”
Historically, Google has rolled out meaningful changes days or even weeks before acknowledging them. In some cases, changes are never formally confirmed.
Given how aggressively certain iGaming and affiliate sites are being hit, the obvious question is whether this represents:
An unannounced spam-focused iteration building on the August 2025 Spam Update
A refinement of December’s core systems
Or something more structural beneath the surface
Within iGaming SEO, the same underlying questions keep resurfacing:
When will expired domains finally stop working at scale?
When will parasite SEO — leveraging powerful third-party domains — cease being such a reliable shortcut?
In essence: When will Google clean up iGaming decisively — if ever?
I have previously argued that the long-anticipated “big clean-up” may not arrive in the dramatic way many expect. What we may instead be seeing is incremental structural pressure building over time.
What We’re Seeing in iGaming Data
When analysing iGaming SERPs, we primarily track larger affiliate brands. They function as useful indicators of broader traffic and visibility shifts.
The first notable observation: expired-domain projects remain highly present in the SERPs. This likely says less about Google “approving” the tactic and more about operators adapting faster than automated systems can neutralise them.
However, when we set those aside and examine more established affiliate brands, a clearer pattern emerges:
Several domains that successfully “pushed through” earlier updates — including the December 2025 Core Update — have experienced major traffic losses beginning in January and continuing into February.
In some cases, we are seeing estimated organic traffic declines of 50–75% compared to their 2025 peaks.
This pattern is not isolated. It repeats across multiple affiliates we monitor closely.
Some domains that gained during December’s rollout remain slightly above their pre-update baselines, but their advantage has narrowed significantly as volatility persists.
We are also observing parasite-style implementations being hit hard in certain markets, with traffic drops ranging from 30–75% in more aggressive setups.
Who Appears to Be Hit the Hardest?
It is still too early to declare clear winners and losers. However, one common denominator stands out among heavily affected sites:
Heavy reliance on purchased authority — aggressive link buying, rented placements, PBN networks, and other inorganic authority schemes.
Sharp spikes in referring domains that do not align with brand growth or content expansion.
Many of these sites carry what I call “SEO debt.” They have operated under models that worked for years, but the landscape has shifted rapidly. As anyone active in iGaming SEO knows, the past 18–24 months have brought structural change.
When compared to sites with steadier link-growth curves, fewer obvious paid placements, and stronger on-site quality signals, the latter group appears significantly more stable — at least for now.
At this stage, the relative winners seem to include:
Editorial media and established publishers with gambling or sports-betting verticals.
A subset of highly agile black-hat operators who continue exploiting subdomains and expired domains faster than Google can systematically suppress them.
Historically, however, such windows tend to close. Volatility waves and spam iterations eventually neutralise most of these loopholes — even if new ones later emerge.
English SERPs Hit Hardest
From what we can observe, the strongest impact has occurred in English-language SERPs. We have not yet detected the same level of systemic turbulence in more localised markets.
This may indicate that additional recalibrations are still to come.
What Happens Next?
Because Google has not confirmed an update, predicting next steps remains speculative. However, recent patterns show that Google has been more transparent when deploying large-scale core updates.
iGaming remains a niche vertical in the broader ecosystem. When Google launches changes that directly interfere with the tactics heavily relied upon in this space, we see dramatic volatility across tracking tools. Conversely, updates that do not directly target iGaming-specific tactics often barely move the needle.
Whether Google confirms anything or not, something is clearly being recalibrated.
And parts of iGaming are feeling it first.
