Google has started rolling out its September 2026 Spam Update, and businesses that rely on organic search for traffic, enquiries, or leads have a reason to pay attention.
The rollout began on September 24, 2026, applies globally across all languages, and may take up to two weeks to complete. Google has classified it as a spam update, rather than a core update.
This difference is important. A core update changes how Google evaluates and ranks content overall. A spam update is about how Google finds and deals with search spam.
Google has not said that this update specifically targets AI-generated content, backlinks, keyword stuffing, or any other single SEO tactic.
So if your rankings move during the rollout, the right response is not to start rewriting the website. First, find out what changed, where it changed, and whether there is a pattern worth addressing.
What We Know, What We’re Seeing, and What We Don’t Know
There are three different levels of information surrounding this update.
What Google has confirmed: The update is underway and is a global spam update with a rollout period of up to two weeks.
What the SEO industry is observing: Search Engine Roundtable reported another period of significant ranking volatility around September 30 and October 1. This may be another wave of the ongoing rollout, but Google has not officially described it as a separate phase.
What remains unconfirmed: Google has not said whether AI-generated content, link building, keyword stuffing, or any other specific practice is being targeted.
If your rankings drop during the rollout, take it as a sign to investigate. It doesn’t mean Google has penalised your website.
Why This Matters to Businesses
For business websites, search visibility means more than just traffic numbers.
Your service pages may bring potential customers looking for a specific solution. Your blog may introduce prospects to your company before they are ready to make an enquiry. A product or location page may generate a meaningful share of your organic leads.
If those pages lose visibility, it can affect more than just your rankings. You could see:
- Fewer organic visitors
- Lower visibility for commercial searches
- Declining enquiries from search
- Important service pages losing positions
- Previously successful content generating less traffic
But there is another possibility: nothing significant has happened to your website at all.
Search demand shifts, competitors update their pages, search results change, and new features appear. Rankings can move for many reasons.
That’s why your first step shouldn’t be changing your website. Instead, check if there’s been a real, meaningful change.
What the Update Should Make You Look At on Your Website
Google has not said which specific spam practices drove the September update. Its existing spam policies nevertheless provide a useful framework for reviewing your website.
1. Large volumes of low-value content
Has your website accumulated hundreds of pages that provide very similar information?
Publishing more pages does not automatically create more search opportunities. If many pages offer little beyond minor keyword variations, they can create a weak content footprint rather than a stronger one.
2. Keyword-led pages
A page should exist because it serves a genuine user need, not simply because a keyword has search volume.
If several pages were created around slight variations of the same query, check whether they actually serve different search intents.
3. Duplicate and near-duplicate content
Location pages, service variations and product pages can become repetitive when the underlying information barely changes.
If the only real difference between pages is the city, service name, or keyword, it’s time to review your overall content structure.
4. Scaled content
Publishing a lot of content isn’t a problem by itself. The real question is whether you can keep quality and oversight high as you add more pages.
If your business goes from a few well-researched articles to dozens of generic pages each month, check if the new content is really adding value.
5. Content that simply repeats what already exists
An article does not become useful because it is longer than the competing pages.
Ask what it adds: specialist knowledge, original analysis, practical examples, current information, data or experience that helps the reader make a decision.
And one distinction is worth keeping clear:
Not every weak page is a spam page.
A page might be thin, outdated, or off-target without breaking any spam rules. Likewise, a drop in rankings doesn’t always mean Google found a spam issue.
That is exactly why diagnosis matters before jumping to any conclusion.
What the Update Signals for Modern SEO
The safer way to handle an algorithm update is not to chase every new ranking signal the SEO industry talks about.
Instead, focus on making the important parts of your website even stronger.
Create for the search problem, not just the keyword
Someone searching for a technical service may need to understand the process, requirements, risks or next steps. A page that simply repeats the target phrase will not answer those needs.
Bring genuine expertise into the content
For B2B companies, useful content can draw from projects, regulations, technical knowledge, industry processes, data and real customer questions.
This kind of information is much harder to copy than a generic definition from another site.
Consolidate where the site has too much overlap
Many businesses overlook this issue.
You might have:
- 10 blog articles covering almost the same topic
- Multiple service pages targeting overlapping searches
- Location pages with nearly identical copy
- Older articles competing with newer ones for the same query
Each page may look acceptable when reviewed individually.
You might only notice the problem when you review these pages together, as a cluster.
Sometimes, the best SEO move isn’t to add another page, but to combine several weaker ones into a single, stronger resource.
How to Tell What Actually Changed
If your organic visibility has dropped, don’t just note that “traffic is down.”
Look for patterns in the changes.
If the whole website lost visibility
Check for broader technical issues, major site changes, indexing problems and other factors alongside the timing of the spam update.
If one group of similar pages declined
Check for things these pages have in common, like similar intent, thin content, duplicate text, or mass publishing.
If impressions fell but rankings remained relatively stable
The change might be due to shifts in search demand, different queries, or changes in the search results (SERPs), not just a drop in rankings.
If rankings remained but clicks fell
Check your click-through rate (CTR) and the search results. New features, title changes, or shifts in search intent can lower clicks even if rankings stay the same.
This kind of diagnosis gives you something much more useful than a simple before-and-after traffic comparison.
Not Sure What’s Behind the Page Ranking Drop?
We’ll assess your traffic, rankings, affected pages, and site-wide patterns to pinpoint the issue and recommend the right next steps.
Get an SEO Audit →Does This Mean AI Content Is Being Penalised?
There is no evidence in Google’s announcement that the September 2026 Spam Update specifically targets AI-generated content.
The bigger concern for businesses is what happens when using AI leads to lots of repetitive, generic, or poorly reviewed content.
The distinction is straightforward:
AI-assisted content is a production method. Low-value content is a quality problem.
AI can help with research, organization, and production, but it doesn’t automatically provide industry expertise, original insights, or good editorial judgment.
If you use AI in your content process, make sure the final page still offers real value to your readers.
What Should You Do If Your Rankings Have Dropped?
Start with evidence.
1. Identify the affected pages and queries.
Use Google Search Console to compare clicks, impressions, rankings, and landing pages.
2. Establish when the change started
Compare your site’s performance before September 24 and during the rollout. Don’t assume every recent fluctuation is because of the update.
3. Find the pattern
See if the affected pages have things in common, like topic, template, content type, keyword approach, or when they were published.
4. Audit the pages manually
Review each page for search intent, originality, accuracy, expertise, duplicate content, and usefulness.
5. Audit the relationships between pages
Don’t just judge if one article is good. Consider if you really need five similar articles, or if they should be combined.
6. Choose the appropriate response
Improve, consolidate, redirect, remove or leave the page alone.
Don’t rewrite a page just because its ranking changed. Only do it if your analysis shows there’s something to fix.
The Bigger Takeaway for Businesses
Google’s search systems will keep changing. You can’t build a lasting SEO strategy by trying to predict every update.
If your rankings changed during this update, focus first on your most important pages. Find out what moved, look for patterns, and fix the real issue instead of just reacting to the update.
The goal isn’t just to get through one Google update. It’s to build a website that keeps earning visibility in the long run.
