Google spam update: investigate a traffic drop
Google launched its September spam update. Separate changes in search traffic from technical failures before drawing conclusions.
Google’s global, all-language spam update began on September 24, 2026. Official notice.
What publishers should check
A date match alone does not make the update responsible for every traffic drop. Our editorial sequence is to check page availability and analytics first, organic impressions and clicks second, then individual pages and queries. Save an export and record site changes made during the same period.
Compare matching weekdays, countries and devices. Lower impressions, lower CTR and missing measured visits are different symptoms. Check redirects, indexing and analytics installation. Fix a confirmed fault; rewriting everything without a diagnosis makes the outcome harder to evaluate.
What advertisers should check
Ask partners to separate organic and paid traffic. Lower volume from one source does not prove lower quality among remaining visitors. Compare approved events and costs for equivalent groups, keeping confirmation delay visible.
A useful investigation output
Create a table with page, query or source, period, metric change, technical check and action taken. Keep the cause labelled as a hypothesis until supported. This checklist is editorial advice, not a Google diagnosis of an individual website.
Next: reconciling reports.