It's Time for SEO Agencies to Check Website Traffic After Google's September 2026 Spam Update

Google's September 2026 Spam Update is now complete, with the rollout running from September 24 to October 8, 2026. Now that the rollout has finished, SEO agencies should check their clients' organic traffic, keyword rankings, and Google Search Console data to identify any noticeable changes. This is also a good time to review pages that may be affected by spam-related issues, including low-value scaled content, keyword stuffing, and manipulative SEO practices.

The update comes at a time when AI can produce thousands of pages, images, videos, business descriptions, listings, and other digital assets in a very short time. This has increased attention around synthetic content created using AI, AI-generated spam designed to manipulate search rankings, scaled content abuse involving large volumes of low-value pages, and coordinated networks of websites or accounts working together to influence search visibility.

What We Know for Sure About the September 2026 Spam Update

Google's September 2026 Spam Update is now complete, following its rollout from September 24 to October 8, 2026. But Google hasn't announced that this specific update is directed at a particular kind of spam, like AI-generated content, programmatic SEO, expired domains, or link spam. The reason this is important is because a change in ranking is not always a sign that a website is being penalized for using AI.

Google already has a Search spam policy which details the types of behavior that Google considers spam. These involve generating huge quantities of poor-quality text content, keyword stuffing, link spam, scraping, cloaking, and more, all targeted primarily at altering the results in Search.

Google has automated systems that identify spam and sometimes manual review as well. In the event of a site violating Google's spam policies, its pages may become less visible in Search or, in extreme cases, they may disappear from Google's search results.

The Synthetic Gap: Why AI Spam Is Becoming Harder to Detect

Most standard spam protection methods are able to pick up on obvious characteristics such as duplicate content, duplicated templates, overstuffed keywords, or unusual links.

However, AI has made spam more difficult to detect.

Generative AI can generate thousands of pages that are different from one another. The words, pictures, titles, addresses, and page formats may be automatically updated.

For instance, a spam network may develop hundreds of local pages that feature a variety of city names and a bit of various material. The appearance of each page can vary, but all the pages can be produced in the same automated manner.

So, it isn't always an issue of duplicate content.

Google's SAFE research takes a more holistic approach to this type of issue. It can also explore the mechanisms and processes by which content is created, how it acts, and if it is linked or not, rather than just looking at the look of each piece of content.

What makes the Synthetic Gap significant is that AI can produce a seemingly unique set of spam messages while the actions behind them might still indicate that these messages are part of a broader automated or coordinated effort.

Google's SAFE System Examines AI and Synthetic Abuse

Google Research published a study on “Automating Forensic Investigation of ‘AI Slop’ with the Scaled Abuse Forensics Examiner (SAFE).” SAFE is described as an automated, multi-agent system designed to investigate large-scale synthetic media abuse. Traditional detection methods may miss coordinated spam when each piece of content is slightly different.

For example, a network could create many localized versions of similar content, making them difficult to identify as duplicates. SAFE takes a more holistic view and examines various signals such as content, behavior, and relationships among content. As simply put as it can be: it is more a digital forensic investigation team than an assessment of whether a specific piece of content is AI-generated.

Cluster Understanding Agent: This verifies the connection of different accounts, channels, or content groups. They may even appear to be distinct, but they can commonly exhibit similar patterns indicating that they are connected to the same network.

Behavior Understanding Agent: Examines when/where content is created or shared. Can identify suspicious activity such as uploading a lot of content from several sources or several accounts simultaneously.

Content Understanding Agent: Tests the content itself for any possible policy violations. It uses AI models to assess whether the content meets Google's policies or displays behavior inconsistent with the purpose of these policies.

Root Agent gathers the information from the other agents. It looks at the different signals and uses them to form the final assessment.

SAFE and the Technical Foundation Behind It

SAFE uses several AI-based techniques to investigate large-scale synthetic abuse. It combines specialized AI agents, large language models, few-shot learning, multimodal information, Semantic relationship, content analysis, cluster analysis, and behavior patterns to examine how content is created and distributed. A root agent then brings these different signals together to form an overall assessment.

Google Research says this approach is designed to make forensic investigations more scalable and help identify new types of synthetic abuse that traditional detection methods may miss. The important point is that this does not mean every AI-assisted article is spam. The bigger concern is large-scale, low-value, coordinated content created mainly to manipulate Search visibility.

What I Observed in Google Search Console During the September Spam Update

Initial improvement – Impressions increased from 1.95K to 2.31K, while average position improved from 22.5 to 17.5.

Fluctuating impressions – Impressions reached their highest point of 3.37K during October 4–6.

Ranking fluctuations Average position moved between 17.5 and 25.9 throughout the observed period.

After rollout – Impressions declined to 2.14K during October 8–10, while average position stood at 23.1.

Overall – The website experienced fluctuations rather than a consistent decline during the september spam update.

Keyword Stuffing and Natural Keyword Placement

Keyword stuffing is one of the spam practices website owners should review following Google's September 2026 Spam Update. Overuse or over-inclusion of the same keyword in any way to improve Search rankings is known as keyword stuffing.

For example, a website might create many city pages using almost the same content and repeatedly add phrases such as “Local SEO agency Sydney,” “Local SEO agency Melbourne,” and “Local SEO agency Brisbane” throughout the page. If the pages provide little useful information and are mainly created to target more searches, they may need to be reviewed.

However, using keywords naturally is a normal part of SEO. When the main keyword can be included in the page title, the H1, URL, and opening paragraph is a great opportunity for the website owner.

For instance, in case of the keyword “Local SEO agency”:

Title: Best Local SEO Company for Small Business

H1: Local SEO Agency for improve Local Visibility

URL: /local-seo-firm/

Opening: Our local SEO agency improves local visibility for small businesses on Google Search, Maps, Voice and AI.

This assists Google and users to understand the page's subject. The most important thing is to use the right words in the right places and give the visitors value added information, and not hide the value-added information behind too many keywords.

Google Business Profile and Spam Practices

The September 2026 Spam Update does not refer to Google Business Profile but is a Google Search ranking update. Google's SAFE research is interesting though because it tries to leverage content and pattern and relationships between content across content sources to set up an investigation of large-scale synthetic abuse.

This is a cautionary tale for local business to review Google Business Profiles and to be mindful of any practices that may be perceived as manipulative. Business names should not be stuffed with keywords to increase the frequency of searches for their business. For instance, it is not correct to change Sydney Flower Studio to “Sydney Flower Studio | Best Florist Sydney | Cheap Flowers Sydney | Same Day Florist.”

Fake reviews, fake engagement, duplicate building of citations, and information that isn't accurate should be avoided as well. SAFE's research also goes beyond text and can analyze multimodal information such as text, images and video. This is important as AI can now create large amounts of photos, videos, and other digital content very quickly.

Keep the business name genuine, use accurate information, select the right category and ensure that information and content associated with the business, such as photos, videos, descriptions, and other content, are real and useful.

Now Is the Time for SEO Agencies to Check Website Traffic

For SEO agencies, the Spam Update of September 2026 is significant because agencies typically work with several sites, local SEO projects, content initiatives, and a lot of business pages. An agency that generates content using AI or automation on scale must ensure the content is actually helpful and not just for the purpose of targeting more keywords.

Now that the rollout is complete, SEO agencies should check their clients' Google Search Console and organic traffic data to identify changes following the update. Compare performance before and after September 24, 2026, and review clicks, impressions, average position, and the pages and keywords affected. Then compare the findings with GA4 organic traffic and conversions to understand whether changes in search visibility are affecting business results. If you manage multiple client websites, prioritize those showing noticeable declines and investigate the possible causes before making major changes.

What SEO Agencies Should Check After the Spam Update

It's important to keep in mind that, if your website is seeing a drop in traffic or rankings after the Spam Update, it doesn't necessarily mean the reduction was triggered by the update. Google advises users to scrutinize their website and Google Search Console information to know what exactly has altered.

1. Check Google Search Console

Now that Google's September 2026 Spam Update is complete, SEO agencies should compare their clients' performance before and after the rollout. Check clicks, impressions, average position, and the pages or search queries showing significant changes. Compare these findings with GA4 organic traffic and conversions to understand whether changes in search visibility are affecting business results.

2. Look for a Manual Action

Next, check the Manual Actions report in Google Search Console. A manual action is not an ordinary algorithmic change in rankings. If Google has taken action manually, Search Console will give you information about the problem and what you can do to fix it.

3. Audit Scaled Content

To review pages that have been generated by AI, programmatic SEO, automated translation, automated rewriting, templates for location pages or automated product pages. Ask yourself if each page has valuable content for visitors. Any pages with hundreds of identical pages, with only a new city, product or keyword name, should be carefully considered.

4. Check for Scraped Content

Be sure to look for content that has been copied or harvested from other sites on your website. Google's spam policies apply to abuses of scraping when the content is republished primarily with a view to influencing Search results. Changes in a few words from another web site is not necessarily a conversion of its originality or usefulness, so concentrate on adding your own information, experience, data, and insights.

5. Check the Website's Technical Health

A sudden ranking or traffic change may sometimes be due to a technical issue instead of spam. Verify indexing, XML sitemaps, canonical URLs, internal links, redirects, robots.txt, CMS-generated pages, search and filter URLs, subdomains and subdirectories. Look for rogue or compromised web pages. The policies of Google against spam include cloaking, doorway abuse, spammed content and efforts to circumvent spam policies.

Final Thoughts

Google's September 2026 Spam Update is complete, making this a good time for SEO agencies to review their clients' search performance. Check Google Search Console, compare organic traffic and rankings, and identify the pages or keywords that have gained or lost visibility.

If you notice a decline, investigate possible issues with content quality, keyword usage, scaled content, technical SEO, or other spam-related practices. Remember that a ranking change does not automatically mean a website has been penalized by the update.

Rather than making drastic changes, focus on evidence-based improvements, create useful content for people, and continue monitoring performance over the coming weeks.