Nozzle reports 8 percent of Google SERPs ‘poisoned’

Image credit: Abondance

Nozzle reported Thursday that 8 percent of Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) displayed altered results without error messages, a phenomenon the company called ‘poisoning.’

The study, published Oct. 10, 2026, analyzed 17.8 million SERPs collected since Sept. 13, 2026, finding a significant increase from a reference period. The report indicated that the rate of poisoned SERPs jumped from 0.17 percent in the Aug. 20 to Sept. 9 reference period to 8 percent in the subsequent analysis. These altered results retained only 20.7 percent of their usual organic sites, with social media platforms like Reddit, Facebook and LinkedIn showing increased presence.

The issue peaked between Sept. 27 and 29, affecting approximately a quarter of all SERPs, according to Nozzle‘s data. Since then, the daily rate has fluctuated between 5 percent and 11 percent.

Poisoned SERPs present no visible errors or captchas to users but replace expected results with irrelevant content. Pagination on these affected pages often dramatically reduces, Nozzle reported.

Rémy Blanchard, an expert at Foxglove, advised search engine optimization (SEO) professionals to cross-reference any position drops with Google Search Console data and historical keyword performance. This approach helps verify issues before reporting them to clients, Blanchard said.

Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable commented on the findings, noting the unusual nature of the reported alterations. Derek Perkins, a data scientist at Nozzle, led the global study, which covered 49 countries.

The increased prominence of social media sites such as Instagram, Quora, YouTube, Yelp and MapQuest was also observed within the altered search results, according to the analysis.

Source: Abondance