Developing
Volatility is measured by third-party tools, and the causes of individual drops are not confirmed.
In 60 seconds
- Barry Schwartz reports a third phase of the September 2026 spam update between October 4 and 6; the update began September 24.
- Earlier phases came on September 25-27 and September 30.
- Google said this update rolls out over about two weeks, versus the typical two days, so it produces several impact cycles.
- Schwartz calls this "likely the final phase" and says remaining spikes are possible.
Impact Layer
- What changed
- The long spam update appears to be finishing, after several waves of ranking movement.
- Why it matters
- Sites hit by earlier phases can begin to assess damage once the rollout ends, rather than reacting mid-update.
- Who is affected
- SEO teams, publishers and site owners seeing traffic changes since late September.
- Martech stack area
- SEO & Search, Content
- Stack impact
- Wait for Google to mark completion, then compare traffic before and after and review content against the spam policies.
- Business impact
- Moderate Volatility figures come from 13 third-party tracking tools; reports of traffic drops are from commenters and are not verified.
- Related vendors
- What to watch
- Google's status page marking completion, and any statement about which policies were targeted.
Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz reports that a third phase of Google’s September 2026 spam update occurred between October 4 and 6. The update began on September 24, with initial impacts on September 25 to 27 and renewed activity on September 30.
What the report says
- Volatility data come from 13 monitoring tools, including AccuRanker, Algoroo, AWR, CognitiveSEO, DataForSEO, Mangools, Mozcast, Semrush, Serpstat, Similarweb, Sistrix, Wincher, Wireboard and Zutrix.
- Google indicated this spam update differs from earlier ones, with “a rollout around two weeks, versus the typical two-day rollout.” The long timeline produces multiple impact cycles on different days.
- Commenters reported mixed results: one saw severe declines from search and Discover and unexpected traffic from non-target regions; another reported an 80% fall in earnings on a news site.
- Schwartz describes this as “likely the final phase,” while noting that more volatility spikes are possible.
Our read
A rollout that lasts two weeks makes it hard to judge any single day’s movement. Wait until Google marks the update complete, then compare a full period after with a full period before, by page type. The reader reports above are anecdotes, and Google has said nothing new about which policies were targeted, so avoid rewriting a site on the strength of someone else’s drop. See our earlier report on the start of the update for the policies Google has named.
Sources
- Search Engine Roundtable: Google September 2026 spam update phase three hit October 4-6 (opens in a new tab)
Source of the phase dates, the tracking tools, Google's two-week statement and Schwartz's assessment.