How Can We Recover a Website Hit by a Google Spam Update?
- Thread starter SerpStory
- Start date
- Aug 7, 2026
- 138
- 18
Yes there is a chance to recover it. You should wait until the spam update is finished before making big changes.
After that, check which pages lost rankings and what changed on those pages.. Look at the content, internal links, backlinks and anything that may look spammy. Fix the real problems instead of changing everything at once.
Some sites do comeback after a spam update but it can take a few weeks or longer to see the effect
After that, check which pages lost rankings and what changed on those pages.. Look at the content, internal links, backlinks and anything that may look spammy. Fix the real problems instead of changing everything at once.
Some sites do comeback after a spam update but it can take a few weeks or longer to see the effect
RyanCrawls
Junior Member
- Jun 6, 2026
- 102
- 19
I usually compare the pages that dropped with the ones that didnt. That gives a much better clue than changing the whole site after an update.
- Apr 20, 2018
- 5,250
- 2,992
There’s a chance to recover, but I wouldn’t make big changes while the update is still rolling out.
Try to identify what type of spam/low quality signals the site may have, then clean up thin, duplicate, or clearly manipulative areas and monitor after the rollout.
- Apr 30, 2009
- 1,895
- 126
First thing id check is the Manual Actions report in search console. If theres an action listed its a reconsideration request not a waiting game, if its clean then its the algorithm and nothing you file will speed it up.
- Apr 27, 2016
- 6,394
- 2,524
Let it settle down for a bit. Then try to recover it.
catalinmrm
BANNED
- Jun 23, 2023
- 14
- 2
Yes recovery is possible in some cases but its too early to judge the September update because Google says the rollout started September 24 2026 and may take up to two weeks.
AliesLiu
Newbie
- Jun 8, 2026
- 32
- 14
TBH, I had wait for the update to be fully implemented nd find out how many page are now lost and which ones work nd then solve the actual problem.
If the account get hit by an older update, then this update would not solve the problem automatically for you FYI. In case of spam accounts, a total manual reset is needed.
- Oct 5, 2009
- 2,453
- 1,225
Surely we can recover. First you need to identify the cause of the drop and fix it. Surely you can see the changes in the upcoming days or weeks
- Aug 2, 2020
- 283
- 106
yes is quite possible
this is not the time to abandon hope on the old website. start by identifying what made the traffic plummet then remove the bad content or impprove the good ones. as the update is only recently rolled out it may be wise to wait a while before making drastic changes.