Google has started rolling out the September 2026 Spam Update. The update is global, applies to all languages, and according to the official Search Status Dashboard may take up to two weeks to complete.

That matters mainly because search results can keep shifting while the rollout is still in progress. If traffic or rankings change today or tomorrow, that does not automatically mean we know why or that it is already time to diagnose the site.

What exactly did Google announce?

At 9:15 a.m. Pacific Time on 24 September, Google marked the start of the spam systems update in its Search Status Dashboard. The company shared only three concrete details: the update is global, it affects all languages, and the rollout may take up to two weeks.

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Google did not publish a list of new spam types or say that the update targets a particular kind of site, technology, or AI-generated content. Anyone already claiming that “Google is now penalising X” knows more at this point than Google has chosen to say publicly.

A spam update is not an “anti-AI update”

Google’s current spam policies cover far more than automatically generated text. They include cloaking, doorway pages, manipulative links, hidden content, hacked sites, site reputation abuse, and creating large volumes of content primarily to manipulate rankings.

Generative AI appears in Google’s scaled content abuse policy, but not because using AI is prohibited. The issue is producing large amounts of unoriginal or low-value content mainly to manipulate search results. Google explicitly says that the purpose and value of the content matter, not simply the tool used to create it.

What makes sense during the rollout?

The most useful thing to do is mark 24 September in your own reporting timeline and watch the data. If visibility changes significantly, check whether it affects the whole site, one type of page, a specific directory, or a particular group of queries.

Rebuilding a site after one bad day makes very little sense. The update is still rolling out, the data can fluctuate, and Google has not published a new set of requirements that sites suddenly need to meet.

WebsiteGarage’s take

SEO has an ugly habit: every major update instantly generates hundreds of very strange takes before anyone has enough data. With a rollout expected to last up to two weeks, patience is part of the analysis – not a failure to act.

If there is a sustained decline once the rollout is finished, then it makes sense to look for a pattern and compare it with Google’s actual policies. If there is no decline, there is no reason to start fixing the site just because the algorithm is going through another update.