When did the September 2026 spam update start and end?

The September 2026 spam update began rolling out on September 24, 2026 at 09:15 US/Pacific, which is 10:15 Mountain Time in Alberta. Google says the rollout may take up to two weeks to complete. For the confirmed completion time, check the Google Search Status incident page directly, since the finish is announced there rather than being fixed in advance.

Should I change my website during a Google spam update rollout?

No, avoid structural changes during the rollout. Rankings shift daily by design while a spam update runs, so a page can drop and recover on its own within days. If you rewrite or delete content mid-rollout, you cannot tell whether Google's update or your own edits caused a change. Capture a baseline now and wait until the update is confirmed complete.

How do I know if the spam update hurt my site?

Export your top pages and queries from Google Search Console before drawing conclusions, then compare after the rollout finishes. The update affects ranking order globally, but Google's status note does not say which sites gain or lose. Only a page that drops and stays down after the update completes is worth investigating; short-term wobble during the two-week rollout is normal.

Hack #033 · Search

The September 2026 spam update is rolling out right now

Google started a global spam update on September 24 that changes ranking for up to two weeks — here is what to check and what not to touch.

2026-09-25 · 4 min · we hit this one ourselves

By Chen Deng · OxOne, Calgary AB

Time~15 min to baseline
You needGoogle Search Console access
Don'tRewrite pages mid-rollout

What changedUPDATE: September 2026 spam update — Google Search Status · 2026-09-24

Do this

Google's September 2026 spam update began rolling out on Sept 24 and may take up to two weeks; don't make panic changes mid-rollout — record where you rank now and wait for it to finish before you judge anything.

If your Google traffic has been jumping around since the last week of September, you are not imagining it. According to Google Search Status, the September 2026 spam update started rolling out on 2026-09-24 at 09:15 US/Pacific. It applies globally, to all languages, and it affects Ranking — meaning the order your pages show up in Search can shift while it runs.

The one detail that trips up Alberta owners: Google's status page quotes everything in US/Pacific time. That 09:15 start was 10:15 in Mountain Time. When you compare Google's incident timeline to what you saw in your own analytics, add an hour before you line the two up, or you will chase a dip that happened at a different time than you think.

What the source actually says

The status note is short, so here is the whole of it, without embroidery:

Sep 24rollout began (09:15 US/Pacific)

2 weeksGoogle says it may take up to this long to finish

Globalall regions, all languages

That is it. The source does not list which sites go up, which go down, or what specifically counts as spam this time. If you want Google's definition of spammy behaviour, open Google's spam policies page directly — do not trust a number or a rule you saw in a forum thread this week, because nobody outside Google has confirmed how this particular update behaves yet, and neither have we.

Why not to touch anything yet

During a rollout, ranking is unstable by design. A page can drop on Tuesday and recover on Friday before the update has even finished. If you rewrite pages, delete content, or change your site structure in the middle of that, you will never know whether the update moved you or your own edits did.

update starts→rankings wobble daily→you panic-edit mid-rollout→you can't tell what caused what

The two weeks are for watching, not for surgery.

What to do this week

Your job right now is to capture a clean "before" picture so that when the rollout finishes you can actually read the result.

Open Google Search Console. Go to Performance > Search results and set the date range to the last 28 days. Note your total clicks and impressions.
Under that same report, sort by Pages and export your top 10-20 pages with their current clicks and average position. This is your baseline.
Do the same for your top queries. Write down which searches actually send you traffic today.
Diarise a date about two weeks out from Sept 24 to come back and re-export. Only then do you compare.
Keep publishing and answering customers as normal. Routine work is fine. Structural rewrites, mass deletions, and "let me try something" experiments wait until the rollout is confirmed complete.

Confirm it's done first

Rankings settling down does not mean the update finished. Check the same Google Search Status incident for an "Update completed" note before you draw any conclusion, and remember the timestamps there are Pacific, not Mountain.

Where DIY stops

Capturing a baseline and waiting is genuinely something you can do yourself this afternoon. What you cannot do yourself is reverse-engineer why a specific page moved from Google's public note — because the note doesn't say, and honest guessing at this stage is just guessing.

If you export your baseline now, you'll have real evidence when the dust settles.
If several money pages drop hard and stay down after the update completes, that is the point to get a proper content and links review — not before.
If your traffic held steady through the rollout, do nothing. There is no prize for editing a page that's already ranking.

Every one of these came out of work we actually did. If you would rather not do it yourself, book a free 30-minute diagnostic and we will tell you which of these your business is losing money to.

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