Google is rolling out another spam update, and if your business depends on search traffic, you probably want to know whether you need to change something on your website.
I would start by looking at what your pages actually offer visitors. Changing an SEO plugin or rewriting every article because rankings moved this week is a difficult decision to justify without first understanding what changed.
Before changing your website, identify which pages lost visibility and whether there is a real problem to fix.
What Google has confirmed
The September 2026 spam update started on September 24, 2026. Google says it applies globally, covers all languages, and may take up to two weeks to finish. As of October 1, its announcement has no completion notice. That puts the estimated rollout window around October 8, although the dashboard should be checked for the actual completion date. See the Google Search Status Dashboard.
The announcement does not identify particular industries, WordPress plugins, or content formats as targets. Claims that this update specifically targets AI blogs, online stores, or small business websites go beyond what Google has announced.
What we can do is explain how spam updates work, review the practices Google identifies as spam, and investigate changes using your own website data.
What a spam update changes
Google’s spam detection systems operate continuously. A spam update introduces notable improvements to those systems. SpamBrain, Google’s AI-based spam prevention system, is one example Google gives when explaining this process.
If a site violates Google’s spam policies, it can lose rankings or stop appearing in results. That can happen through automated detection. A manual penalty is not required. Google explains this in its documentation on spam updates.
Imagine a business publishes hundreds of pages that offer almost the same information. Some receive search traffic. If Google becomes better at detecting an abusive pattern behind those pages, their visibility could fall even though the owner has changed nothing recently.
That is an illustration, not a report of what this particular update has already done.
It also does not mean every useful website will rise, or that every website losing traffic has broken a rule. Search results change for several reasons. The timing gives you something to investigate, but it does not establish the cause.
Which practices deserve attention?
Google’s published spam policies cover several practices relevant to business websites:
- Scaled content abuse:producing many pages primarily to manipulate rankings, with little value for visitors.
- Doorway abuse:creating similar pages for related searches that funnel visitors toward another destination.
- Abusive scraping:republishing or lightly changing other sites’ content without meaningful added value.
- Expired-domain abuse:repurposing an expired domain mainly to exploit its previous reputation.
- Link spam:arranging links primarily to manipulate rankings.
- Cloaking, hacked content, and deceptive redirects:showing misleading content or sending visitors somewhere they did not expect.
These are established policy categories, not a confirmed list of what changed in September. The full list is in Google Search spam policies.
For a typical service business, I would start the review with large batches of articles and location pages. They are easy to produce quickly, and it is just as easy to lose track of why each page needs to exist.
AI assistance does not automatically make an article spam
Google says generative AI can help with research and structuring original content. It also warns that generating many pages without adding value may violate its scaled content abuse policy. That distinction is in Google’s guidance on generative AI content.
For your own publishing process, I would ask what you contribute before worrying about which tool helped write the sentences.
Suppose you are explaining a WordPress performance problem. You could provide the symptoms, the configuration you tested, screenshots, measurements, and the limitations of the fix. AI might help organize those notes into an article that is easier to follow.
There is something concrete for a reader to learn from that.
Now consider a workflow that collects five competing articles, combines their headings, and generates another version. If the result contributes no testing, useful explanation, evidence, or distinct perspective, publishing another hundred versions does not solve that weakness.
My practical test would be this: what can someone learn or decide from this page that they could not already get from its sources?
That is an editorial question, not a Google ranking formula. It is still a useful question to ask before paying to produce more content.
Location pages need a reason to exist
Consider three pages:
- Web designer New York
- Web designer London
- Web designer Berlin
If the only differences are the city name and a few rewritten sentences, I would question what the second and third pages add for a prospective client.
A useful local page has a reason a customer in that place would need it:
Actual availability
Where you work, and how a customer there would actually use the service.
Relevant work
Examples that relate to that area, not the same page with a different city name.
How meetings work
What an on-site visit involves, if you offer one.
Questions from that area
Answers that are true for those customers. Invented local references make the page less trustworthy.
Those details should be true and relevant.
Sometimes one strong service page with a clear explanation of the areas you serve is easier for customers to use and easier for you to maintain.
The decision should follow the business. If you cannot explain why a customer needs the separate page, that is a good reason to reconsider it before creating fifty more.
What I would review on a WordPress or WooCommerce site
For this review, I would group pages by how they were created. That helps you find repeated weaknesses without treating every URL as a separate project.
| Page group | What I would examine |
|---|---|
| Blog articles | Whether they contain accurate answers, useful examples, and something beyond a summary of other articles |
| Location pages | Whether each page explains a real difference in the service offered |
| Product pages | Whether buyers can understand compatibility, specifications, delivery, and suitability |
| Category and tag archives | Whether the collection helps people browse and find relevant information |
| Automatically created pages | Whether anyone checked the output and whether the pages have a useful purpose |
These are review priorities, not categories of pages that are automatically spam.
For a product page, I would spend time on questions customers actually ask. Will this part fit their model? What is included? What are the dimensions? Is there a limitation they should know before ordering?
Rewriting a manufacturer’s description with different adjectives does little to answer those questions. Adding verified buying information can make the page more useful without making it much longer.
How to investigate a traffic drop
Google recommends using Search Console to examine affected pages and queries, while considering other explanations such as technical problems, security issues, and seasonal demand. Its guidance also cautions against radical changes for small ranking fluctuations. That is in Google’s guide to diagnosing search traffic drops.
For this rollout, I would work through the following sequence:
- Record the dates.Note the September 24 rollout start alongside website releases, migrations, outages, and major content changes.
- Compare equivalent periods.Use complete days and matching weekdays where possible. Treat a short comparison during an active rollout as preliminary.
- Find the affected pages.Determine whether the loss is concentrated in one article, a page group, or the whole site.
- Inspect the queries.Check which searches lost clicks and impressions, rather than relying only on the overall average position.
- Check technical and account reports.Review indexing, Manual Actions, and Security Issues before deciding that content caused the drop.
Then read a sample of the affected pages.
For example, imagine a hypothetical site where location pages lose substantial visibility while service pages and detailed case studies remain stable. I would compare those page groups and investigate what they do differently. I would not immediately rewrite the entire website.
Also check whether enquiries or sales changed. Losing visits to an old informational article has a different business impact from losing visibility for the service that brings in most of your customers.
What I would avoid changing in a hurry
I would be cautious about these during the rollout, unless you already have a clear diagnosis. Each introduces another change you will later have to untangle.
Bulk deletion
Removing large groups of pages before you know which ones are the problem.
Mass rewriting
Changing every article because the average position moved.
Switching SEO plugins
A new setup you will have to separate from the update itself.
Rewrote everything because traffic dropped
A note like that gives you very little to evaluate later.
If you find a concrete problem, fix it. A hacked page, broken redirect, or accidental indexing restriction does not become less urgent because Google is updating its systems.
For content, make the correction fit the problem. An inaccurate guide needs factual corrections. Several overlapping articles may need consolidation. A useful page with a weak explanation may need better examples.
Keep a record of what you changed and why.
Recovery also takes patience. Google says its automated systems may need months to learn that a site consistently complies with its spam policies. Improvements are possible, but fixing a problem does not guarantee a return to previous rankings. See Google’s spam update recovery guidance.
Make changes you can explain from the evidence: what failed, who it affected, and how the correction improves the page.
If you need help reviewing a drop, start with the affected URLs and the Search Console comparison. Those give us something specific to investigate.
Frequently asked questions
Does the September 2026 spam update affect every website?
It applies globally and across all languages. That describes its scope. It does not mean every website will experience a noticeable ranking change.
Should I delete articles written with AI?
AI involvement alone is not a reason to delete an article. Review its accuracy, usefulness, and original contribution. The concern includes producing pages at scale without adding value.
Does a ranking drop mean I received a manual penalty?
No. Automated ranking changes and manual actions are different. Check the Manual Actions report. An empty report does not rule out an automated effect.
Should I wait until the rollout finishes?
You can investigate now and fix confirmed problems immediately. I would reserve broad conclusions about the update until completion is confirmed and enough subsequent data is available.
What is the most useful thing to do today?
Identify the pages that changed, read a representative sample, and document what you find. That gives you a practical starting point for deciding whether the site needs a technical fix, content improvements, or more observation.
