It’s the fourth spam update of 2026. The September 2026 spam update is still rolling out as I write this on 1 October. It’s already more than six days old, and still within Google’s two-week window.
August’s rollout was 2 days and 16 hours. September is already more than twice as long. The gaps between these updates are getting shorter: 91 days, then 55, then 36.
The numbers
There have been four spam updates so far this year: March, June, August, and now September. March’s rollout took under a day. June took two days. August took two days and 16 hours. This one is past six days and still going.
The core updates of 2026 were in March and May. The last one finished on 2 June, about four months ago. Since then, we’ve had three spam updates and no new core update.
The gaps between the spam rollouts have been 91 days, 55 days, and 36 days, counted from one start date to the next. Each one shorter than the last. Google hasn’t said why. I haven’t got an answer either.
What I think
Longer rollouts means Google’s doing more in each pass.
What Google has said
Google confirmed the update on 24 September via its Search Status Dashboard. The rollout is global, affecting all languages. Google describes spam updates in general as notable improvements to its automated spam detection, for example SpamBrain, its AI-based spam-prevention system. It has not named what kind of spam this update targets.
If your site has been affected, Google says to review the spam policies and see if you’ve broken any of them. It warns that sites that do may rank lower or not appear in results. Recovery may come over months as its systems learn a site complies. After a link spam update specifically, Google says fixing things might not bring any improvement, because the benefit those links once gave is gone for good.
If you think it hit you
Start by leaving your site alone until the rollout finishes. Mid-rollout changes make it hard to compare before and after. Record your rankings and traffic now as a baseline. Check the Manual actions report in Search Console. A manual action is a separate problem with its own fix. If the report is empty, that route is ruled out.
For more on how to tell if you’ve been hit, see my post on the August 2026 spam update. It covers the checklist in detail.
This post will be updated when Google marks the rollout complete.
Sources
Google’s Search Status Dashboard for the dates and durations, and its spam updates documentation for what Google says about recovery. The observations about cadence are ours.