{"id":1500,"date":"2026-10-12T07:24:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T07:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/localseobot.ai\/blog\/google-september-2026-spam-update-finished-manual-penalties\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T12:36:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T12:36:03","slug":"google-september-2026-spam-update-finished-manual-penalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/localseobot.ai\/blog\/google-september-2026-spam-update-finished-manual-penalties\/","title":{"rendered":"Google September 2026 Spam Update Finished, Manual Penalties Rising"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google has finished rolling out its September 2026 spam update, and the search results have shown continued volatility in the days since. Publishers are also reporting a rise in manual action penalties, while Google has published new guidance on fact-checking AI content, evaluating main content quality, and avoiding fake authorship signals.<\/p>\n

What changed in the Google September 2026 spam update<\/h2>\n

The spam update moved through three phases and completed its final phase in early October 2026. Search rankings showed extra movement after the rollout finished, a pattern Google has previously associated with spam systems settling in and recrawling affected pages.<\/p>\n

Manual action penalties also appear to be on the rise. Manual actions are human-reviewed penalties applied by Google’s web spam team, and a higher volume suggests Google is taking a closer look at sites that automated systems flagged.<\/p>\n

How Google wants publishers to handle AI content<\/h2>\n

Google has reinforced that AI-generated content is allowed in search, but it should be reviewed for accuracy before publication. The company’s guidance is to fact-check AI-written material the same way a human-written draft would be reviewed.<\/p>\n

Google’s quality rater guidelines now include expanded sections on E-E-A-T, which stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. The additions help raters judge whether the core content on a page meets Google’s quality bar, and they indirectly shape how the ranking systems evaluate pages.<\/p>\n

Why fake authorship is a problem<\/h2>\n

Google has warned against deceptive authorship signals, meaning content that lists a made-up author, a real person who did not write the piece, or an inflated byline meant to imply credentials the writer does not hold. The warning is part of Google’s broader effort to make sure trust signals in content reflect reality.<\/p>\n

Separately, Google has confirmed that its search spam systems use AI to find AI-generated spam. The implication for publishers is that mass-produced, low-quality AI content is a target, not a shortcut.<\/p>\n

Crawling, indexing, and new Search Console options<\/h2>\n

Google published fresh numbers on crawling, indexing, and serving timelines, giving site owners a clearer sense of how long it takes for a page to move from discovery to ranking. Alongside that, Google has recommended using the retry-after HTTP header to slow crawling when a site is under strain, rather than blocking crawlers outright.<\/p>\n

Google Search Console has added multi-select country filters to the performance report, and the Search Generative AI control page now surfaces top-level domain details, so site owners can see how pages perform across regions and AI surfaces.<\/p>\n

Other Google search changes worth noting<\/h2>\n