Google's September spam update is finally finished
Google confirmed its September spam update finished rolling out on October 8, after nearly two weeks. Meanwhile Glenn Gabe says hand-issued penalties for "Pure spam" and "Thin content" are piling up alongside the usual drops.
Read the whole week in one goSpam update done, penalties up, trackers unreliable
Why your traffic moved
The September spam update has finished rolling out
Google says its September 2026 spam update (a ranking change aimed at sites breaking its spam rules) finished rolling out on October 8. It started on September 25, making it a long rollout by Google's standards. If your traffic moved during that stretch, the movement should now settle.
The rollout was complete as of October 8, 2026.
Who this affects: Everyone with a website, especially anyone whose traffic shifted in the last two weeks.
- Compare traffic before September 25 and after October 8 in Search Console.
Do not do this
Hand-issued penalties rose alongside the spam update
Glenn Gabe says that during the spam update, more site owners contacted him about manual actions (penalties applied by a human at Google), naming "Pure spam" and "Thin content". He blames scaled content abuse, mostly pages made with AI or programmatic templates. Daniel Foley Carter says some hit sites lose over 90% of their traffic overnight.
In my experience people only start caring about this stuff after they’ve been hit, and by then it’s often too late.
Who this affects: Anyone who has published pages in bulk or bought links in the past year.
- Open Search Console, click Manual actions, confirm it says no issues detected.
- Our take: delete near-duplicate pages that swap one word and add nothing.