Google's September 2026 spam update has finished rolling out

What changed

Google's September 2026 spam update started on September 24 and finished on October 8, after almost two weeks. Google described it as a normal spam update that applies everywhere and in every language, and it did not publish any new guidance with it.

What it means for your business

Spam updates target websites that break Google's spam policies, such as pages built only to rank, scraped or mass produced content, and link schemes. Google did not say the update was aimed at Business Profiles, so a change in your Google Maps position over those two weeks is more likely to come from something else.

If your website traffic dropped during the update, wait until the rollout is finished, then compare the two weeks before and after in Google Search Console before you change anything. Big edits made in a panic often do more damage than the update did.

What we do for clients

Website traffic and map position are two different things. When a client sees a dip in website numbers, we rescan their map on the same 49 points and show them whether their map position actually moved. Most of the time it has held, and the right move is to keep doing the weekly work.