Google spam updates
Google ranking changes targeting sites that violate spam policies, including scaled content and affiliate sites. Every SEO Weekly story on google spam updates, newest first. 13 stories since September 2026.
- Google may penalize sites where users can publish pages
Updated spam guidance warns platform owners to watch what their users get indexed.
- Google penalties are now hitting ordinary businesses
Several SEOs say the wave of hand-issued Google penalties is landing on normal companies, not just obvious spam sites.
- The spam update is over, so rankings should settle
Google's long spam update is done, and attention is already turning to the next core update.
- Sites hit by the August spam update are bouncing back
Google appears to be recalculating its spam scores, and some sites that lost rankings in August are winning them back.
- AI articles still rank if a person checks them first
Julian Goldie says sites he watches grew through the September spam update, and credits manual review rather than the writing method.
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- Top SEOs expect a big Google update very soon
Three well known search experts read the same signals in Google's documentation edits and came to the same conclusion.
- Google plans more spam crackdowns, staff say
Google is adding new spam thresholds as it deals with what staff call a growing flood of AI slop.
- Spam update hit a second time on September 30
Sites that came through the first wave untouched are now reporting sudden drops.
- Copy-paste location pages are getting hit again
One site lost visibility after building the same service page 143 times, one county at a time.
- Spam update looks like it is hitting template-built pages
One well known SEO is seeing early hits on sites that spin up a near-identical page for every phone number or area code.
- Spam update hit hardest over the weekend
Friday looked quiet, then rankings moved sharply across several countries.
- Google built a new detector for AI written spam
Glenn Gabe says the system predates both the August and September spam updates.
- Paying for mentions in AI answers may now backfire
Glenn Gabe says the new Google spam update could land on the businesses buying AI search visibility, though Google has not said that.
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