A spam update is a Google improvement to its automated spam detection, in the context of search rankings. Google lists them among its ranking updates and ties them to SpamBrain, its AI-based spam prevention system.
At a glance
- Started
- listed in the Search Status Dashboard since November 2021
- Completed
- recurring, most recently completed October 8, 2026
- Type
- improvement of automated spam detection
- Confirmed by
- yes (Search Status Dashboard)
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What does a spam update mean for SEO?
Spam detection runs all the time. A spam update means Google improved the systems noticeably, for example to catch new kinds of spam. Sites that violate the spam policies may rank lower or no longer appear after one.
Google writes that changes can lead to improvement if its automated systems learn over a period of months that a site complies with the policies. Affected sites should review the spam policies. A link spam update is different, because the ranking benefit of devalued links is lost.
Google’s Search Status Dashboard lists these updates with start dates, among them March 5, 2024, August 26, 2025 and March 24, 2026. According to the dashboard, the August 2026 update started on August 18 and took 2 days and 16 hours. Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Roundtable give August 21 as the end date. SEJ also reports that Google published no blog post for it. The latest dashboard entry, the September 2026 spam update, started on September 24, 2026, and Google reports it complete on October 8, 2026.
- November 2021 spam update.Source: status.search.google.com
- November 2021 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- May 2022 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- September 2022 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- October 2022 spam update, global and for all languages.Source: status.search.google.com
- December 2022 link spam update, global and for all languages.Source: status.search.google.com
- March 2023 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- August 2023 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- October 2023 spam update, global, with improved coverage in languages including Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi and Chinese.Source: status.search.google.com
- October 2023 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- November 2023 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- March 2024 spam update.Source: status.search.google.com
- March 2024 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- June 2024 spam update.Source: status.search.google.com
- August 2024 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- November 2024 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- December 2024 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- December 2024 spam update, global and for all languages.Source: status.search.google.com
- March 2025 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- June 2025 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- August 2025 spam update, global and for all languages.Source: status.search.google.com
- December 2025 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- March 2026 spam update, global and for all languages.Source: status.search.google.com
- March 2026 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- May 2026 core update.Source: status.search.google.com
- June 2026 spam update, global and for all languages.Source: status.search.google.com
- August 2026 spam update, global and for all languages.Source: status.search.google.com
- September 2026 spam update, global and for all languages.Source: status.search.google.com
All core and spam updates listed in the Google Search Status Dashboard (Ranking) since November 2021. Each period runs from release to the reported end of the rollout; the dashboard uses US Pacific time. The dashboard does not list older updates; where Google dated them, they appear in the ranking systems timeline. Last checked: .
Example
The March 2024 spam update ran alongside the March 2024 core update and new spam policies on expired domain abuse, scaled content abuse and site reputation abuse.
Sources
- Google Search spam updates and your site – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Google Search Status Dashboard, Rankingstatus.search.google.com
- Google August 2026 spam update – Search Engine Journal (secondary)searchenginejournal.com
- Google August 2026 spam update is done – Search Engine Roundtable (secondary)seroundtable.com
- Google completes rollout of October 2023 spam update – Search Engine Journal (secondary)searchenginejournal.com
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