Google’s September Spam Update
If you run a small website, the next question is understandable: Did anything change for my site, and should I do something about it?
The answer begins with your data—not an immediate rewrite of your content.
It applied globally and across all languages.
Google did not identify a particular industry or content type as the target of this update. That distinction matters. A change in rankings during the rollout does not, by itself, prove that your website was penalised or that a particular SEO practice caused the movement.
Google’s official guidance is to review its spam policies if your website experiences changes following a spam update.
Before editing pages, open Google Search Console and preserve a baseline.
For an initial review, you can separate the data into three periods:
These are useful reference windows, not perfectly matched comparison periods.
As of 13 October, the post-update period is still too short for firm conclusions. Continue collecting data, then compare equivalent periods and weekday patterns.
If your traffic started declining before 24 September, that is also worth recording. The timing may point to a different explanation.
A site-wide traffic chart is useful, but it does not tell you where the change occurred.
Start with four questions:
Did impressions fall, or did clicks fall?
If impressions declined, your pages may be appearing less often in search results. If impressions stayed relatively steady but clicks declined, investigate click-through rate and possible changes in search results.
Did average position change?
Look at ranking movements alongside impressions and clicks. Remember that average position is an aggregate metric, so it needs context.
Which pages and queries were affected?
Check whether changes are concentrated on one page, a group of related pages or several sections of the website.
Are branded and non-branded searches behaving differently?
Separating searches for your brand from searches for general topics can help you understand the pattern more clearly.
Also consider seasonal demand, recent website changes and normal fluctuations.
If a decline continues after you have collected enough comparable data, examine the affected pages more closely.
Ask whether each page has a clear purpose and offers something useful to its intended reader.
Look for issues such as:
These are areas worth reviewing against Google’s published spam policies. Their presence should be established through an actual audit—not assumed simply because an update occurred.
Equally, do not merge, delete or rewrite pages merely because the rollout has ended.
A useful sequence is:
Preserve the baseline → Locate the change → Investigate the cause → Decide what needs fixing → Measure again.
If you identify a genuine content or technical problem, address it and document what you changed.
If the data is inconclusive, continuing to monitor may be the better immediate decision.
SEO improvements should follow evidence, not anxiety about an algorithm update.
The end of a Google update is not a deadline to overhaul your website.
For small website owners, the most useful response is often a careful review of Search Console, an understanding of which pages and queries changed, and a decision based on patterns rather than isolated numbers.
Sometimes the first SEO action is to make no changes until you understand the problem.
Want to understand how website structure and page purpose affect your SEO decisions? Explore SEO Academy for lessons on providing each important topic a clear page and identifying pages that may be competing for the same purpose.
For a more structured website review, explore the SEO Audit Workbook for Small Websites in the SEO Best Practices shop.
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