Google Releases the September 2026 Spam Update

Google released the September 2026 spam update on 24 September 2026. The Search Status dashboard logged it at 09:15 PDT: “Released the September 2026 spam update, which applies globally and to all languages. The rollout may take up to two weeks to complete.” Google Search Central’s own announcement added one line of characterisation, calling it “a normal spam update”.

It is the fourth spam update of 2026, after March, June and August, and it began 34 days after the August update finished on 21 August. It is also the third spam update in a row since the May core update, something that hasn’t happened before in the dashboard’s history of ranking updates, which goes back to November 2021.

What Google said about the September spam update

Nothing beyond the dashboard note and Google Search Central’s short announcement. There is no Search Central blog post, no new spam policy type, and the spam updates documentation still carries a last-updated date of 10 December 2025. The spam policies remain the rules being enforced, and any list of targets appearing in coverage is inference rather than something Google stated.

The one detail that differs from August is the expected length. August’s note said the rollout “may take a few days” and it closed in 2 days and 16 hours. September’s allows up to two weeks. Google has never linked rollout length to impact, so a longer window is a reason to wait longer before drawing conclusions, not evidence of a heavier update.

How to read Search Console during the rollout

Movement during a rollout runs in both directions before it settles, so a single day is not the outcome. Mark 24 September in your reporting and hold off on conclusions until Google marks the update complete.

One reporting change landed on the same day. Search Console added a multimodal search type, splitting Web into text-based and multimodal. Google has not said whether the split changes the historical Web totals, so compare the same Search type on both sides of 24 September, and check that the week before the rollout looks like the weeks around it before using it as a baseline.

If a site loses visibility and the drop holds once the rollout has closed, Google’s guidance is to review the spam policies and correct violations. Google states its automated systems may take months to recognise that a site complies again. An algorithmic spam update brings no Search Console notification and cannot be appealed: reconsideration requests apply only to manual actions.

• Started: 24 September 2026, 09:15 PDT
• Status: Rolling out
• Scope: Global, all languages
• Expected duration: Up to two weeks
• Type: Spam
• Confirmed by: Google Search Status

Sources

• September 2026 spam update, Google Search Status
• Google Search Central on the September 2026 spam update, LinkedIn
• Ranking updates history, Google Search Status
• Google Search spam updates and your site, Google Search Central
• Spam policies for Google web search, Google Search Central