Google Completes September 2026 Spam Update as Unconfirmed Volatility Hits

Google completed its September 2026 spam update in October 2026, and unconfirmed ranking volatility was observed in the weeks after, while the company has yet to roll out its next core update. The details come from a monthly webmaster report by Search Engine Roundtable.

• Google finished rolling out its September 2026 spam update in October, after a Phase Two on 9/30.
• Unconfirmed ranking volatility showed up on October 20, 21 and 24 while Google holds back the next core update.
• Google’s documentation now says to manually fact-check and review AI-generated content, and warns against deceptive authorship.
• AI Overviews appear on most searches, yet a small study found a very low click-through rate for AI Overviews and AI Mode.
• Google’s Q3 revenue grew strongly to $127.6 billion, but profit missed expectations on AI infrastructure spending.

Google has finished rolling out the September 2026 spam update

Google completed the September 2026 spam update in October 2026, according to Search Engine Roundtable. The rollout has finished, so the update is no longer in progress.

The update ran in phases. Phase Two of the update hit on 9/30, the report notes, which means the rollout reached into the final days of September before wrapping up in October.

Since then, the story has two parts. The spam update is done, and ranking movement has continued without any confirmation from Google. Per the report, the company is holding off on rolling out another core update.

For anyone managing SEO content, the practical takeaway is simple. Ranking changes seen in Search Console or in rank trackers during October cannot all be pinned on the spam update, because Google has not confirmed the later shifts as updates at all. Comparing performance before and after the 9/30 phase, and separating that from the October volatility dates, gives a cleaner picture than treating the whole month as one event.

Unconfirmed volatility followed the spam update’s completion

Ranking volatility was reported on October 20 and 21, again on October 24, and on one further day that showed a spike in volatility and community chatter. Google has not confirmed any of these as updates.

Such reports typically come from rank-tracking tools and from site owners and SEO professionals noticing sudden swings. They indicate that something moved, not what moved or why. Without a statement from Google, the cause remains unknown.

Core update versus spam update

A core update is a broad change to Google’s ranking systems. A spam update is different: it targets spam. That distinction matters when reading volatility, since a site hit by a spam update is usually dealing with a spam-related issue, while a core update can shift rankings across many kinds of pages.

What is expected next

A new core update from Google is expected, though no date has been given. Until it arrives, the October movement stays in the unconfirmed column, and teams tracking performance should note the dates above alongside their own data.

For more on how Google frames spam rules for site owners, see Google’s updated spam guidance.

Google’s documentation now stresses fact-checking AI content and honest authorship

Google updated its documentation to say that AI-generated content should be manually fact-checked and reviewed for accuracy. The wording puts the verification step on the publisher, not on the tool that produced the text.

The helpful content documentation also changed. It gained new main content sections and new EOT/SA sections, according to the report. The report does not spell out what those abbreviations stand for or what the sections contain, so their exact scope is not clear from the source.

Deceptive authorship

Google warned against deceptive authorship information within content. In practice that covers author names, bios and credentials that misrepresent who actually wrote a page. For teams that publish under named authors, the guidance points toward making byline details match reality.

User-generated spam guidance

Google also warned tools about user-generated spam guidance. No further detail is given on which tools were addressed or what the warning requires, so the specifics are not known yet.

Taken together, the changes touch on a familiar worry for content teams: whether AI-assisted articles can be published safely. Google’s documentation does not ban AI-generated content in the facts reported here. It asks for human review for accuracy and for honesty about who wrote what.

Google is using AI to fight AI spam and may issue more manual actions

Google said its spam updates use AI to find AI spam. The company is therefore applying the same technology on both sides of the problem.

The report also says Google may be issuing more manual action penalties. A manual action is a penalty applied by a person at Google, as opposed to an algorithmic change. The report frames this as a possibility, not a confirmed shift in policy.

Google’s John Mueller said that eventually systems will catch AI spam and tricks. The statement suggests that shortcuts that work today are not expected to keep working.

Gary Illyes of Google said AI made bot impersonation worse. Bot impersonation means automated traffic that pretends to be a legitimate crawler or user, and the comment points to a growing side effect of the same technology.

The common thread is that quality control is being automated while human review remains part of the picture, both inside Google and, per its documentation, on the publisher’s side.

AI Overviews and AI Mode keep expanding while clicks stay scarce

Google AI Overviews now show up on the large majority of Google searches, according to the report, including for typos and for queries with no results. That reach makes them a default part of the results page, not an occasional feature.

Google announced link updates to AI Overviews. A new small study looks at whether those links actually drive clicks, and its numbers are sobering: it found a very low click-through rate for AI Overviews and AI Mode. The study is described as small, so the result is a signal, not a market-wide measure.

On the model side, Argon 4 (Gemini 4 Argon) now powers some of AI Mode. Which queries, or what share of AI Mode, is not specified.

Google also removed AI Overviews labels on some AI Overviews. With fewer labels, it becomes harder for users to tell which results came from the AI feature, and harder for site owners to judge how often their content sits beneath one.

For publishers, the combination of broad coverage and a very low click-through rate explains why visibility in AI answers and traditional clicks are being treated as separate things to measure.

New Search features and tools for site owners and businesses

Universal Cart launched in Google Search in the U.S., and Universal Search is live in the U.S. How either works is not explained further.

Google Search Console added multi-select country filters to the Performance report. Teams working across markets can now look at several countries at once instead of one at a time, which helps agencies and multi-site operators compare regional performance.

Google Search Profiles is expanding to India and Canada, with Brazil support coming soon.

Google Discover will transform into a hyper-personalized concierge, per the report. No timing or design details are given.

Apps can now be built for Google Search through a Connected Apps Platform. Requirements, and which kinds of apps qualify, are not described.

Several of these items are limited to specific markets or are still rolling out. The Search Console filter is the one change that applies directly to everyday reporting work.

Google Business Profile changes include ordering controls, reports and delayed appeals

Google Business Profiles added third-party ordering controls. Businesses that take orders through outside services get more say over how those options appear.

New advanced performance reports are rolling out as a test, so not every profile will see them yet.

The local panel also gained Facebook Messenger M.me links and a WhatsApp button, adding two messaging routes for customers.

Google Business Home, the new Google Business Profiles home, is rolling out as well.

One item moved the wrong way. Google Business Profile review appeals are delayed again. No new date is given, so businesses waiting on a disputed review have no timeline from this source.

Google’s earnings and a dismissed lawsuit show the pressure around AI search

Google’s Q3 revenue grew strongly to $127.6 billion. Profit still missed Wall Street expectations, which the report attributes to heavy AI infrastructure spending and slowing growth in core search advertising. Ad revenue rose by a smaller margin.

Google said ads in AI Mode earn less than traditional search ads. Alongside the click-through figure above, it shows that AI answer formats are not yet matching the commercial return of classic results. How those ads are targeted is also changing, as explained in Google’s privacy policy update for AI Mode ads and its personalization exception.

An AI Overview lawsuit against Google was dismissed because there was no agreement with publishers. The report gives no more detail on the case.

Background on AI controls

The Google Search Generative AI Control page added top-level domain details, and Google adopted a new AI training control. Both relate to how site owners manage the use of their content by Google’s AI features, though the mechanics are not described.

Sources

• Search Engine Roundtable

Photo by Search Engine Roundtable