Google's September spam update is still rolling out

Google is updating how it detects spam in Search. The rollout is still underway, so a change in website traffic this week needs a closer look before you draw conclusions.

Google began a global spam update on September 24 and says it may take up to two weeks to finish. A spam update changes how Google detects pages created to manipulate search results. Google has not said that every website will be affected.

For a small business, this is most relevant if your site has many near-identical pages made mainly to appear for different searches. Google’s spam policies focus on whether those pages genuinely help visitors, regardless of whether a person or AI wrote them.

If visits from Google have changed this week, the update is one possible explanation, but a drop alone does not prove your site was flagged as spam. The rollout is still in progress, and traffic can change for other reasons.

One useful check: open Google Search Console’s Performance report and see which pages, if any, lost visits from Google. Review those pages as a customer would. Do they offer specific, accurate information that helps someone choose your service, or do they repeat the same general text with a few words changed? Google advises sites affected by a spam update to review its policies; improvements may take time to show in search results.