Google's September 2026 Spam Update Now Rolling Out

The September 2026 Google Spam update is now rolling out and will take up to two weeks to complete.

The September 2026 Google Spam update began September 24 at 9:15am PDT and was confirmed by Google through the Google Search Status Dashboard which reads:

“Released the September 2026 spam update, which applies globally and to all languages. The rollout may take up to two weeks to complete.”

This is the fourth spam update of 2026 and comes just 34 days after the August 2026 Spam Update finished rolling out.

September 2026 Spam Update Key Details

Name

September 2026 Spam Update

Start Date

September 24: 9:15am PDT

Duration

“The rollout may take up to two weeks to complete.”

Impact

Global – all sites, all regions

Preceded By

August 2026 Spam Update

Time Between Updates

34 days Since August Spam Update completed

Why is Google releasing so many spam updates?

It’s a fair question. This is the fourth spam update of 2026. Given we’re only just over 3/4 of the way through the year, there’s a very good chance that the September 2026 spam update won’t be the last spam update for 2026.

So, why are we getting so many? It’s pretty simple – Google is fighting an unprecedented amount of web spam largely driven by AI content. As the bar to create and publish content has become lower, the volume of content being produced has gone through the roof. Google is now in a position where it is fighting new spam tactics that were previously off-limits due to the sheer amount of work they would have taken to pull off in a pre-AI era.

AI content continues to explode

The SEO manipulation tactics that we are seeing in 2026 aren’t necessarily new, but they are at a greater scale than we have ever seen them before. The idea of spinning a high quantity of content and publishing it at scale, aka programmatic SEO, isn’t a new thing. However, the sheer volume of tools that can now automate this process means that Google is now fighting a much greater battle to keep the SERPs unique, free from spam, and actually providing value to users.

Google is fighting for SERP quality

If we take a step back and think about Google as a business model, Google relies on the high quality of their search results in order to sell ads to advertisers. When the quality of search results plummets, users will invariably begin to look for results and information in new places, whether that’s other search engines or whether that’s leaning more into AI for information queries. It means that Google is in a position where it has to fight for its continued market dominance.

Google isn't just preserving SERPs, it is also preserving AI Overviews

In the past, if Google ranked an article which featured low quality or potentially misleading information, then that was more of a problem for the publisher than it was for Google. Users knew that Google really had no skin in the game, in the sense that if they were clicking onto a publisher’s website, they weren’t getting the information from Google.

However, now that Google is absorbing that information into AI Overviews, there is a growing sense that Google is more liable than ever for the information being surfaced. If misleading or low-quality information is absorbed from publishers and presented in AI Overviews, then Google is now the one facing scrutiny from users.

In other words, AI Overviews mean that Google’s reputation is on the line more than ever before. What used to be seen as the responsibility of the publisher for publishing accurate information is now also the responsibility of Google, because they are providing summaries for users and users expect those to be valuable and accurate.

September 2026 Google Spam Update.

The September 2026 Google Spam update is now rolling out and will take up to two weeks to complete.

September 2026 Spam Update Key Details