Spam Update Still Driving the Weather
The SEO skies are gusty today. Google’s September 2026 spam update is still active on day 11, after starting September 24, and Google says it applies globally across all languages with a rollout that may take up to two weeks. The official Search Status Dashboard still lists the update as active for ranking, so today’s movement should be treated as update weather, not a normal Monday wobble.
AI Slop Is the Storm Target
Search Engine Roundtable’s October 5 coverage points to Google using AI to catch more spam, especially scaled, low-effort AI content. The useful takeaway is blunt: if a page exists mostly because it was cheap to generate, it is standing outside in the rain. Search Engine Land and Google Search Central both reinforce the same direction: Google updated its AI content guidance on October 1 to say AI output should be manually fact-checked and reviewed before publishing.
Volatility matches the story. Rankings have been in a moderate-high stretch since September 23, peaking at 7.8/10 on September 26, cooling slightly, then rising again. Today’s 7.3/10 is partial, so do not treat it as final, but the wind is clearly still blowing.
Crawling Timelines Matter Now
Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Roundtable both covered new Google timing ranges from Gary Illyes: new URL discovery is typically around 20 hours, known URL refreshes can be around 30 days, and site moves can take 1-3 months in typical cases. That means not every ranking or indexing lag is a penalty. Some of it is simply Google taking time to recrawl, process, and serve changes.
Bottom Line
Do not mass-delete pages today. Audit first:
- Flag pages with thin, duplicated, or unreviewed AI text.
- Fact-check AI-assisted content, including titles and metadata.
- Wait for the spam update to finish before declaring winners and losers.
