Google's September 2026 spam update is still running, and a fresh round of ranking movement around 30 September is part of that same rollout rather than a new verdict on your site.
A week on from its launch, Google's September 2026 spam update is still going. When it began on 24 September, Google said the rollout may take up to two weeks to complete, far longer than the two-day spam updates earlier in the year. That long window is now doing what a long window does: producing more than one burst of movement. After an initial impact in the days after launch, site owners reported a distinct second wave around 30 September that carried into 1 October. Search Engine Roundtable's tracking noted large drops flagged by site owners on 30 September, alongside reports of Discover and News traffic falling and AI-translated Reddit content resurfacing in results.
The underlying update remains Google-confirmed, and its Search Status Dashboard still shows the rollout in progress rather than complete. The second wave itself comes from trade-press observation rather than a separate Google announcement, so read it as corroborated reporting, not an official new event. Google has not published how many sites are affected or by how much.
Movement now is expected behaviour, not a verdict
For a professional-services firm keeping an eye on its rankings, nothing about the right response has changed since the update began. Movement during a live rollout, up or down, is the expected behaviour while Google recalculates, not proof of a penalty. A dip during the last days of September can still reverse before the rollout closes, which Google is expected to mark on or around 8 October. Reading any single week as a settled result before then is reading noise.
If your traffic has slipped, the steady course is the same one that pays off during a Google core update: check whether the drop is broad or sits on a few pages, confirm nothing technical has broken, and keep publishing the clear, genuinely useful pages that spam updates are built to reward. For accounting and advisory firms, where a handful of service pages carry most of the enquiries, that mostly means confirming those pages are intact and leaving them be until the picture settles.
The firms that come out of these rollouts in better shape tend to be the ones that held their core SEO steady through the wobble rather than reacting to every daily chart. A fortnight of movement is uncomfortable to watch, but reacting mid-rollout is how a healthy site talks itself into changes it never needed.
Frequently asked questions
Has Google's September 2026 spam update finished rolling out yet?
Google's September 2026 spam update has not finished rolling out yet. Google released it on 24 September 2026 and said the rollout may take up to two weeks, so it is still showing as in progress on the Search Status Dashboard. Expect Google to mark it complete on or around 8 October. Until then, treat any ranking change as provisional.
My firm's rankings dropped around 30 September 2026. Is that a penalty from the spam update?
A drop around 30 September 2026 is probably not a penalty. The movement many sites saw around then is a second wave of the same September 2026 spam update rollout, not a separate action against your site. Movement during a live spam update is expected and can reverse before the rollout ends, so on its own it is not proof of a penalty.
Should I change my website while Google's September 2026 spam update is still rolling out?
While Google's September 2026 spam update is still rolling out, hold off on sweeping changes. Confirm nothing technical has broken and keep your most important pages intact, but wait until Google marks the update complete before making major edits, so you are reacting to a settled result rather than mid-rollout noise.
Does Google's September 2026 spam update affect firms in Australia and the UK?
Yes. Google says the September 2026 spam update applies globally and to all languages, so Australian and UK sites are in scope along with everywhere else.
Why has Google's September 2026 spam update produced more than one wave of movement?
Google's September 2026 spam update has produced more than one wave because of its length. Earlier 2026 spam updates ran in about two days, while this one has an unusually long window of up to two weeks. A longer rollout gives Google more time to recalculate, which is why sites have seen movement in more than one burst rather than a single short spike.
