Google May Be Blocking Search Scrapers More Successfully

Several SEO tool vendors have reported that collecting data from Google search results got noticeably harder starting around September 13th. According to Search Engine Roundtable, this isn't an official Google announcement, but something rank-tracking tool operators observed on their own.

Rank-tracking tools run the same search terms automatically every day and report back where a site ranks. Most of the ranking dashboards that SEO teams and marketing agencies check daily are built from data these tools collect.

The change appears to target AI crawlers, search scrapers, and third-party tracking tools alike. It follows a report earlier this month that publishers are blocking AI training crawlers while letting answer-focused bots through, and now a similar pattern seems to be showing up on the ranking and data-collection side too.

Derek Perkins of the rank-tracking vendor Nozzle said most attempts to collect data from Google search are now getting blocked. DataForSEO reportedly ran into similar trouble.

Sistrix wrote on its status page that Google changed the way it delivers search results, and that data collection is now running at a reduced rate as a result. Sistrix's Steve Paine said Google has been continuously changing how it delivers search results for about a year.

Glenn Gabe noted that the impact varies by tool. Ahrefs is still working fine, according to reports, while Sistrix has fallen notably behind.

The article ties this to ranking-volatility reports from September 4th and 12th, saying the blocking seems to have gotten more effective around September 13th. There was also an update on September 15th, and Sistrix logged a further change to how Google delivers results on its status page dated September 16th.

The article doesn't say exactly what Google changed, or whether the change was intentional. It also doesn't give a full list of affected tools or note any country-by-country differences.

These rank-tracking tools aren't just used for search rankings; they're also widely used to check whether a site shows up in AI Overviews. If data collection slows down or entries go missing, the reports and dashboards built on that data can shift along with it.

In Korea

This article covers observations from US-based SEO tool vendors, and whether Korean sites or the rank-tracking tools used domestically are affected the same way is not addressed in the source.

If you're monitoring search results with a rank-tracking tool or an automated collection method, it's worth checking whether data has been updating more slowly than usual or whether entries have gone missing over the past few days. If a number changed abruptly around a specific date, figure out first whether that reflects an actual ranking shift or a problem with data collection.

Source: Search Engine Roundtable, Barry Schwartz, September 18, 2026. Checked September 19, 2026. Read the original