Google's September 2026 spam update finished after nearly two weeks

Google's September 2026 spam update, its fourth spam update of the year, started September 24 and finished on October 8, 2026, a rollout of almost two weeks.

What happened

Google began rolling out the September 2026 spam update on September 24 and said it applied globally and to all languages. The rollout completed on October 8, 2026.

Search Engine Land reported the rollout took almost two weeks, while the previous few spam updates took about two days. Google described it as a normal spam update with nothing specifically new.

Why it matters

If your organic traffic dropped between September 24 and October 8, compare the dates in Search Console against this rollout before changing anything else.

Spam updates target sites that break Google's spam policies. Recovering means fixing the policy problem, then waiting for systems to notice over the following months.