Google announced September 2026 Spam Update

Google’s September 2026 spam update is rolling out globally across all languages. Google says the rollout may take up to two weeks to complete. It’s the fourth confirmed spam update of 2026 after updates in March, June, and August.



We've already reported extreme ranking turbulence starting around September 4, followed by fresh spikes on September 15–16. The ranking volatility could be due to this spam update. Google hasn’t provided additional details about what this update targets.

So, what's the update? Push AI websites up and genuine websites lower in rankings?

noticed weird volitility on a couple sites starting the 15th too, thought it was just me. guess well see in two weeks if its actually spam targeting or just more ai overview reshuffling like the last one

You won't let me live... you won't let me die

What is the latest situation?

Worth checking the start time on the status page against when your own drop actually began. If you were already sliding on the 4th or the 15th its probably not this one, and chasing it will have you fixing the wrong thing.

Cyber Owl said:

It mean earlier ranking changes in the month were likely separate tests rather than part of this rollout.

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watchingthefray said:

noticed weird volitility on a couple sites starting the 15th too, thought it was just me. guess well see in two weeks if its actually spam targeting or just more ai overview reshuffling like the last one

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Most people thought that early-mid September volatility was due to reversals of August spam update. But Google kept on releasing one spam update after another without revealing what exactly are they targeting. We need to wait for a few days to find out which niches faced severe volatility.

I'd avoid making any major change while tha update a still ruling out.

Starblazer said:

Google’s September 2026 spam update is rolling out globally across all languages. Google says the rollout may take up to two weeks to complete. It’s the fourth confirmed spam update of 2026 after updates in March, June, and August.

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We've already reported extreme ranking turbulence starting around September 4, followed by fresh spikes on September 15–16. The ranking volatility could be due to this spam update. Google hasn’t provided additional details about what this update targets.

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Wake me up when there's an update in them no longer stealing our traffic anymore.

Been doing SEO for decades, and what I’ve learned is that even after every rollout, I still follow the same strategy. Many are going to survive while some will lose. That’s just the nature of it.

The best lesson is not to keep changing your strategy. My friends and many others here and there often ask me, “What’s the secret strategy? Does AI work? What’s happening with spam?”

The truth is, everything works if you know what you’re doing. This is the biggest reason why some people say something is dead while others say it works perfectly fine.

Always work on multiple projects and go big.

Recently, I noticed that all my AI blogs are doing fine. Nowadays, I create content only using AI and do link building with automation. It works well, though some sites get affected while others are getting added to AI Overviews.

I’m quite happy with it. Now I’m learning how to automate social media. Still no luck with that yet, but I’m sure there’s a workaround for it too.

Two week rollout so anything you change right now you will not be able to attribute to anything. Better to sit still until it finishes and then look at the data.

Spam updates normally go after link spam and scaled content rather than general quality, so if a site of yours dropped i would look at what was built recently before touching anything else.

That's exactly right. Now we're waiting for the Google core update. The last core update was way back in May.

Project Limitless said:

So, what's the update? Push AI websites up and genuine websites lower in rankings?

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Soon the update will be how many pixel the AI Overview thief will steal from SERP screen.

In a few months there will be a bigass overlay link and wherever you click a redirect will shove you right inside AI Mode.