Google started rolling out the September 2026 spam update on 24 September 2026. It can take up to two weeks to finish, applies to all languages worldwide, and targets sites that break Google’s spam policies. It does not target link spam.
If your traffic moved in the last few days, do not rush into changes. Here is what the update is, who it affects and what to do.
Key facts
- Started: 24 September 2026
- Rollout time: up to two weeks
- Where: global, all languages
- Targets: sites that break Google’s spam policies (not link spam)
- This is Google’s fourth spam update of 2026.
What counts as spam to Google
Google’s spam policies cover practices meant to trick search rankings. The most common ones for small sites are:
- Scaled content abuse: publishing lots of low-value pages, often AI-written, mainly to rank.
- Site reputation abuse: hosting third-party pages on a trusted site just to borrow its rankings.
- Expired domain abuse: buying an old domain and filling it with unrelated content.
- Keyword stuffing and hidden text.
- Doorway pages: many near-identical pages for different cities or keywords.
- Thin affiliate pages: product pages copied from the seller with nothing added.
Using AI to write is not spam by itself. Publishing large amounts of unhelpful content to game rankings is.
What to do if your traffic dropped
- Wait until Google says the rollout is complete. Rankings often move up and down during it, and some changes have nothing to do with the update.
- Compare the two weeks after the rollout with the two weeks before it in Search Console, using the Performance report.
- Open Security and Manual Actions in Search Console. A manual action is a separate penalty and tells you exactly what to fix.
- Check your weakest pages honestly against the list above. Improve or remove thin, copied or mass-produced pages.
- Be patient. Google says recovery can take months, because its systems need time to see that a site has changed.
If your traffic did not change
How this update fits into 2026
This is a busy year for Google spam updates. The September update follows the March update, which finished in under a day, and updates in June and August, when a rollout ran from 18 to 21 August. No previous year since Google began listing spam updates in 2021 has had more than three. Google also ran two core updates this year, in March and May, which are a different kind of change.
Spam update or core update: how to tell the difference
- Spam update: improves Google’s automatic detection of pages that break its spam policies. Sites using those practices drop.
- Core update: reassesses the quality and usefulness of pages across the whole web. Sites can move without breaking any rule.
- Manual action: a penalty applied by a person at Google. It appears in Search Console with a description of the problem.
- Timing: match the date your traffic changed with the dates on Google’s Search Status Dashboard.
Example: a business with many city pages
Imagine a plumbing company that created forty pages such as “plumber in Kukatpally” and “plumber in Ameerpet”, each with the same text and only the area name changed. Those are doorway pages. If they lose traffic, the fix is to keep pages only for areas the business genuinely serves, write unique details for each, such as response times, landmarks and local jobs completed, and redirect the rest to a single service area page.
Mistakes to avoid while the update rolls out
- Deleting large parts of your site before the rollout has finished
- Disavowing links in a panic; Google says this update does not target link spam
- Rewriting dozens of pages with AI in a hurry, which can create the very problem the update targets
- Buying links or reviews to make up for lost traffic
Frequently asked questions
How long does the September 2026 spam update take?
Google said the rollout could take up to two weeks from 24 September 2026. Wait until Google marks it complete before judging the impact.
Does the spam update target AI content?
Not AI as such. Google targets mass-produced, low-value pages created mainly to rank, whether a person or an AI wrote them.
Is a spam update the same as a penalty?
No. A spam update is an automatic system change. A manual action is a separate penalty that you can see in Search Console.
Can my site recover after a spam update?
Yes, but slowly. Remove or fix the pages that break the policies, keep publishing helpful content, and expect recovery to take months.
Nothing to do. Keep publishing useful, original pages. Our 15 SEO tips for beginners are a good checklist for the next month.