Scrambled SERP Issues

Posted: October 21, 2026

You may have seen recent industry discussion about scrambled or "poisoned" search engine results pages (SERPs) affecting rank trackers. If not, here’s a quick overview of what is happening and how we are actively protecting your data at Moz.

For a long time, Google has served altered results when it suspects automated scraping. Rank trackers are in a constant race to blend in, detect these changes, and retry queries as needed. Starting in late September, Google introduced more blatant scrambling behavior alongside other anti-scraping measures. To the best of our knowledge, every rank tracker and scraper across the industry has been impacted to some degree.

What does this mean for your rankings in Moz?

The good news is that our engineering team actively defends your data quality by detecting scrambled SERPs at the time of collection and retrying until we collect an authentic, accurate SERP. This strategy has already resolved the vast majority of disruptions, and we are continuing to fine-tune our detection methods to catch remaining edge cases. While we work to identify those data outliers, you may briefly see some problematic or less authentic data and SERPs. Rest assured, we are working to resolve those as quickly as possible.

Throughout these changes, our resolution of target URLs impacted by the goto redirect issue identified in August has remained steady at >99.99%, including essential SERP features like AI Overviews, People Also Ask, and local packs. 

As you navigate this issue, keep in mind that not all SEO and rank-tracking tools handle these challenges in the same way.

Since Google continues to adjust its anti-scraping behavior, we are monitoring the situation closely and will continue to refine our systems in real time. We appreciate your patience as the industry navigates these changes together.