Search · 2026/10/11

The September spam update has finished. Read the table before you redesign

On 8 October 2026 Search Engine Roundtable wrote that the September spam update had finished, around early morning US Eastern. They described a run of about two weeks. Earlier spam updates this year often ended in about two days. That recap places the start in late September. We already covered the 24 September announcement in do not redesign during the two weeks. This note is only what to read after the run stops.

Finished does not mean your rankings were calculated again from scratch. Many sites see no change at all. In the public discussion, the sites that did move were often a stack of pages made from one template, or drafts almost nobody had read. A brochure page that says what you do, where you are, and how to write to you is not that description.

Read this in your own Search Console. Take the 14 days before 24 September, then the days after 8 October that already show numbers. On both sides, look at impressions, clicks, and average position. If all three look about the same as before, this update is not about your site, and the meeting can stop there. If clicks fell and impressions stayed, check whether the summary on the results page already answered the question, or whether fewer people searched that query. If impressions fell as well, open the page list and see whether a batch of pages went up during the update.

The table we exported in September is for comparing our own site. It is not a benchmark for anyone else. Clicks on the whole site were already few. The romanized brand had impressions and almost no clicks. The Taipei website-build query had impressions, and the position was outside the top twenty. The table already looked like that before this update was announced. If an October chart jumps, compare it with that old export, not with an agency PDF that claims third place. Why those rank tools miss is in the passthrough URL note.

If you edit, edit the mass pages, not the homepage slogan. Twenty city copies of one service paragraph, or ten posts a week that differ only in the title, come down or merge. A service page that already states Zhongshan, a price band, and the form can stay. Markup repeats only visible lines. See structure.

A blank report these days is not a penalty. On 11 October the performance report was described as more than sixty hours late, and Google had not commented. How to read the blank is the delay note. Do the comparison after the days exist.

Manual actions are a different screen, under security and manual actions. A flat performance chart and an empty actions list means there is no homework from this update. If an action is there, read the reason. It usually names a set of pages, not a full redesign. Save the text if it is unclear. Do not buy a quarter of rank repair first.

Two pictures on the day it ends

On Thursday morning someone brings a rank-tool chart into the meeting. The line breaks between 4 and 6 October. The same query still has impressions in Search Console, and the position is not the number on that chart. Do not change the site from that picture. Wait until next week, when the missing days are filled in, and read it again with the same filters.

The other picture is the page list. Twelve pages appeared during the update. The titles differ by a city name, and the body is almost the same. Merge them into one page that describes the area you actually serve. Do not leave all twelve up while you wait for a vague “weight” to come back.

Read an export together Page structure

Source: Search Engine Roundtable, 8 Oct 2026. The finish time is theirs, not your Search Console.