When was the last Google spam update, and how can I tell if it hit my site?

15 October 2026 · By John Carlsson

The most recent spam update on Google's Search Status Dashboard is the September 2026 spam update. It started on 24 September 2026 and Google confirmed the rollout was complete on 8 October 2026. To see whether it hit you, compare your Search Console traffic before and after those dates and check the Manual actions report.

Recent spam updates from Google's dashboard

Google lists confirmed ranking updates on the Google Search Status Dashboard. The ranking history page lists these spam updates in 2026:

September 2026 spam update: started 24 September 2026. Google posted that the rollout was complete as of 8 October 2026. It applies globally and to all languages.
August 2026 spam update: started 18 August 2026, listed with a duration of 2 days and 16 hours.
June 2026 spam update: started 24 June 2026, listed with a duration of 2 days and 1 hour.
March 2026 spam update: started 24 March 2026, listed with a duration of 19 hours and 30 minutes.

The same history also shows the March 2026 core update (from 27 March) and the May 2026 core update (from 21 May). Core updates are not spam updates, but their dates matter when you are working out what caused a change.

What a spam update is

Google's automated spam detection runs all the time. A spam update is a notable improvement to those systems, such as SpamBrain. Google says sites that break its spam policies may rank lower or not appear in results at all.

Most spam updates are algorithmic, so there is no notice. A manual action is different: a person at Google has reviewed the site, and it appears in Search Console.

How to tell if it hit your site

Open Search Console, go to the Performance report and set the date filter to Last 16 months. This shows whether a drop is a yearly pattern rather than something new.
In the date filter, choose the Compare tab and compare a period after the update with an equal period before it. Look at the Pages table and sort by Clicks Difference to see which pages lost the most.
Line the drop up against the dates above. A fall that starts during the September 2026 rollout window (24 September to 8 October) is worth investigating against the spam policies. A fall that matches a core update points somewhere else.
Open the Manual actions report. If there is nothing, you will see a green tick. If there is an action, it lists the type and the affected pages.
Open the Security issues report. Hacked content or malware warnings can cut traffic and are a separate problem.
Rule out other causes. Google's traffic drops guide lists technical issues (check the Crawl stats and Page indexing reports), seasonal changes in interest (check your top lost queries in Google Trends) and reporting problems (check the Data anomalies page).

If it did hit you

Google's advice is to review the spam policies and make sure your site complies. Common problems include scaled content abuse, link spam, doorway pages, expired domain abuse and site reputation abuse. Recovery, if it comes, can take months, because Google's systems need time to learn that the site has changed.

For a manual action, fix every affected page, make sure Google can crawl those pages, then select Request Review in the Manual actions report. Explain the exact issue, what you did to fix it and the result. Google says most reconsideration reviews take several days or weeks. Do not resubmit while a request is pending.

Avoid sweeping changes if your drop is small. Google's guide says small changes in position are normal and warns against radical changes to pages that already perform well.

Our Google Spam Policy Audit checks a site against Google's spam policies one by one, which can help you work through the review Google asks for.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to recover from a Google spam update?

Google gives no fixed time. Its spam updates page says that if your site breaks the spam policies, making changes may help, but improvements can take months because its automated systems need to learn over time that the site now complies. If a link spam update removed the benefit of spammy links pointing to you, that lost benefit cannot be regained.

Is a spam update the same as a core update?

No. Google lists them separately on the Search Status Dashboard. Spam updates are improvements to its automated spam detection systems, such as SpamBrain. Core updates are broader changes to how Google ranks content. Google's traffic drops guide says that after a ranking update there might not be anything fundamentally wrong with your content, so check which update matches your dates first.