When you work in search engine marketing lengthy sufficient, you begin to discover that issues have a tendency to maneuver in cycles. First: SEOs (and now GEOs) discover a strategy to affect the natural or AI outcomes or exploit Google’s rating techniques to achieve visibility. Their techniques grow to be popularized, shared broadly, and duplicated everywhere in the world. Then the search engine (and now AI corporations) construct techniques to cease these techniques from working.
I’ve offered on this – what I name the cycle of search engine marketing – many occasions, as a result of I’ve made it my mission to warn corporations to assist them keep away from making the identical errors as the companies that come to me after they’ve been burned by Google. When you’ve labored with sufficient affected corporations and seen firsthand the devastation that these updates could cause, warning individuals begins to really feel like a private duty. No one ought to should undergo years of misplaced visibility and income due to a tactic somebody offered them as a development hack – particularly corporations that don’t even know that the techniques they (or their search engine marketing companies) are utilizing are in opposition to Google’s pointers.
There have been only a few well-liked search engine marketing exploits that Google didn’t finally smack down – or not less than attempt to. Google’s crackdowns aren’t good, and a few loopholes at all times slip by. However a number of the largest updates in Google’s historical past – Florida, Panda, Penguin, the 2018 Medic replace, the Useful Content material Replace, and the March 2024 core replace – all taught the identical lesson: you do NOT need to be on the flawed aspect when Google lastly decides to take motion.
These updates might be brutal and far-reaching. In my years engaged on web site restoration, I’ve seen dozens of websites that solely dipped a toe into “grey space” techniques get hit virtually as laborious as pure spam websites. With no matter search engine marketing (and now GEO) pattern is at the moment working to trick Google’s techniques, it’s normally not a query of if Google will reply, however when.
When you’ve skilled this cycle earlier than, it ought to be fairly clear the place in it we’re proper now. On this publish, I’ll clarify why I and a number of other different individuals who give attention to algorithm updates are predicting that one other enormous replace is coming.
The TL;DR
- In my expertise, Google updates its documentation with clues earlier than launching main updates.
- Google rewrote its steerage on AI content material this week. It now says it’s “essential” to manually fact-check and assessment all AI-generated content material earlier than publishing, together with titles, meta descriptions, structured information, and alt textual content.
- Google added new language to its useful content material pointers defining “major content material” and the 4 issues high quality raters search for: effort, originality, expertise or talent, and accuracy. Mass-producing AI content material with out oversight is now named for example of little to no effort. (This additionally occurs to be the only largest offender behind websites I’ve seen get hit by algorithm updates this yr.)
- Google now calls pretend authors a type of deception. AI-generated headshots, made-up names, and false credentials are named explicitly as a sign of a low-quality web page.
- Google’s personal individuals are saying it out loud. At Search Central Stay in Barcelona this week, Gary Illyes mentioned scaled content material is changing into extra of an issue than hyperlink spam.
- Based on my analysis, Google seems to have already began decreasing the efficacy of publishing self-promotional listicles in AI Overviews.
- A number of corporations are brazenly promoting paid mentions and listicle placements to affect AI solutions, normally with no point out of nofollow, sponsored labels, or disclosure. When these placements embrace hyperlinks that move rating credit score, that’s a violation of Google’s hyperlink spam coverage, and Google has already mentioned searching for inauthentic mentions isn’t as useful because it may appear.
- Google has launched 4 spam updates in 2026 (March, June, August, and September), in comparison with simply one amongst of 2025. The time between them retains shrinking.
- Different individuals who research algorithm updates are seeing the identical factor, together with Glenn Gabe, Marie Haynes, and Cyrus Shepard.
- I’ve spent this yr working with corporations that had been already hit by Google in 2026, each algorithmically and with handbook actions, and the patterns are clear.
The Final Time This Occurred
I bear in mind the night time earlier than the March 2024 core replace properly. Marie Haynes – who has specialised in algorithm updates, handbook actions, and web site restoration even longer than I’ve – and I had been sitting at a bar in Vegas earlier than our talks that week at Pubcon. My presentation could be concerning the techniques I noticed websites utilizing that I predicted had been prone to get hit laborious by the subsequent Google replace.
I advised Marie I used to be assured Google would finally do one thing, however I used to be additionally shocked it was taking so lengthy to go after what appeared like such apparent examples of spam in its outcomes. She advised me she had a sense Google was going to drop one thing actually large, actually quickly.
She wasn’t flawed. The subsequent day, Google introduced the March 2024 core replace – which ended up being one of many largest updates in Google’s historical past, and at 45 days, the longest core replace rollout Google has on document – together with three new spam insurance policies: website status abuse, scaled content material abuse, and expired area abuse. I spent the night rewriting my slides. These techniques had been now not simply “seemingly” to place a website in danger – Google had named particular insurance policies concentrating on the identical techniques I used to be about to current in my discuss.
Trying again, the warning indicators had been in all places:
- Google advised us to “buckle up.” At BrightonSEO San Diego in November 2023, Google’s Search Liaison on the time, Danny Sullivan, mentioned there have been so many rating enhancements coming that he didn’t need to say “buckle up,” as a result of individuals would freak out (recording by way of Search Engine Roundtable). The phrase caught anyway, and Google repeated the message in January and once more in February.
- The Search Liaison account saved hinting at one thing large. Danny replied to individuals on X for months, implying that the precise spam issues they flagged had been being labored on.
- Google quietly modified its stance on AI content material. With the September 2023 Useful Content material Replace, Google eliminated the phrases “written by individuals” from its steerage and changed them with “useful content material created for individuals.” From what I noticed, many individuals interpreted this as a inexperienced mild for scaling AI content material. Six months later got here the scaled content material abuse coverage.
- It was not a secret that Google’s search engine marketing spam drawback was uncontrolled. In November 2023, The Verge revealed “The individuals who ruined the web,” a protracted characteristic blaming SEOs for the state of search. (I used to be interviewed and quoted on this article within the months main as much as its publication, proper across the time of the Useful Content material Replace.)
When Google lastly took motion, it got here within the type of an enormous core replace, together with three new spam insurance policies that led to handbook actions in opposition to corporations of all sizes. Google mentioned the replace lowered low-quality, unoriginal content material in its outcomes by 45%.
Google Usually Provides Us Clues Earlier than It Takes Motion
The warning indicators earlier than the March 2024 replace weren’t uncommon. A lot of Google’s largest crackdowns had been preceded by public warnings that weren’t at all times taken significantly. And from what I’ve noticed, Google typically updates its documentation or high quality rater pointers shortly earlier than – or proper alongside – main updates. If you realize the place to look, the clues are normally there in writing.
- January 2011: Matt Cutts wrote that spam had elevated and that folks had been asking for stronger motion on content material farms. What adopted: the Panda replace, February 2011.
- March 2012: Matt Cutts mentioned at SXSW that Google was engaged on a penalty for “over-optimized” websites. What adopted: the Penguin replace, April 2012.
- July 20, 2018: The standard rater pointers added new emphasis on the status of a website and its content material creators. What adopted: the “Medic” core replace on August 1, 2018 – 12 days later.
- September to November 2023: Google eliminated “written by individuals” from its useful content material steerage, and Danny Sullivan mentioned, “buckle up.” What adopted: the September 2023 Useful Content material Replace, then the March 2024 core replace and three new spam insurance policies.
- January 23, 2025: The standard rater pointers rewrote the Lowest and Low high quality sections to match the spam insurance policies, including scaled content material abuse and AI content material revealed with out human assessment. What adopted: the March 2025 core replace on March 13 – seven weeks later.
- Could 15, 2026: Google clarified that its spam insurance policies apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode, and revealed a brand new information on optimizing for AI options. What adopted: the Could 2026 core replace on Could 21 – six days later – adopted by the June 2026 spam replace the subsequent month.
- September to October 2026: Google rewrote its AI content material, major content material, and authorship steerage, and Google audio system mentioned scaled content material is a much bigger drawback than hyperlink spam. I feel by this level, it’s honest to imagine from these current communications that one thing large is on the horizon.
The hole between the warning and the replace has ranged from just a few weeks to a couple months. In some circumstances, the timeline might be a lot shorter: Google even introduced the Useful Content material Replace per week earlier than it began rolling out in August 2022.
The Warning Indicators This Time
1. Google Rewrote Its AI Content material Steerage
On October 1, Google up to date its steerage on utilizing generative AI content material. It now reads:
“It’s essential to manually fact-check and assessment all AI-generated content material for accuracy and trustworthiness earlier than publishing.”
The identical assessment applies to titles, meta descriptions, structured information, and picture alt textual content. As Barry Schwartz identified, “essential” is a phrase Google not often makes use of in its documentation. The web page additionally now factors readers to the sections of the standard rater pointers on scaled content material abuse and on content material made with little to no effort or originality.
I see this as the largest warning signal, as a result of scaled AI content material can be the largest offender behind the algorithmic demotions and penalties I’ve seen this yr. This content material is usually filled with hallucinations and inaccuracies. Not solely does this create a poor expertise for Google’s customers, but it surely’s additionally an issue for Google’s personal AI techniques, which might decide up these errors and repeat them again to customers as reality in merchandise like AI Overviews and AI Mode. I wrote about this cycle in “The AI Slop Loop.”
2. Google Outlined “Essential Content material” And What Makes It Good
This identical week, Google added a brand new part to Creating useful, dependable, people-first content material, the doc I’ve lengthy thought of the clearest clarification of what Google’s techniques try to reward. It says the standard of the principle content material is “one of the essential elements” for assessing web page high quality, and lists 4 issues raters are educated to search for: effort, originality, expertise or talent, and accuracy.
The definition of effort is the half that ought to fear anybody scaling content material with AI:
“…utilizing generative AI to supply giant quantities of textual content with out handbook oversight or curation represents little to no effort.“
The accuracy bar can be greater for YMYL matters, the place content material “should be extremely correct and in step with established knowledgeable consensus.”
When you use AI to create or assist create content material, particularly at scale, I’d take this as a critical warning from Google. In my expertise, many corporations assume their AI content material is secure, or higher than the content material Google is warning about. However virtually each firm that has come to me after being hit by an algorithm replace thought its content material was higher than Google finally determined it was.
3. Faux Authors Are Now Formally A Type Of Deception
Google additionally added this to the identical web page:
“Fabricating creator profiles (reminiscent of through the use of AI-generated headshots, made-up names, or false credentials to make content material seem as if it was written by human specialists) is a type of deception. Any type of deception makes a web page untrustworthy to each customers and our automated high quality techniques, and is a sign of a low-quality web page.”
The standard rater pointers already advised raters to deal with pretend writer profiles as deception. That is one thing I’ve written, posted, and offered about for years, and it’s definitely not a brand new tactic. What’s new is that Google is now saying it on to website house owners, and connecting it to its automated techniques moderately than simply to raters. Search Engine Journal discovered this paragraph wasn’t on the web page in June.
This isn’t a theoretical drawback – it’s already inflicting high quality points in Google’s outcomes. Faux AI specialists have been displaying up in all places – together with an AI-generated “artwork therapist” who was quoted greater than 30 occasions within the media earlier than anybody observed. I additionally noticed this as a typical tactic employed by websites hit by the Useful Content material Replace and different current core updates, together with in 2026.
4. Google’s Personal Individuals Are Saying It Out Loud
At Search Central Stay in Barcelona this week, in keeping with John Campbell’s recap:
- Gary Illyes mentioned scaled content material is now changing into extra of an issue than hyperlink spam (!!!)
- Duy Nguyen mentioned there have been extra spam updates lately as a result of there may be a lot extra new content material, and that the crew is now utilizing AI to catch extra of it.
- Duy additionally advised the room to learn the standard rater pointers, and outlined high quality utilizing the identical 4 attributes from the brand new documentation: effort, originality, expertise or talent, and accuracy.
Google mentioned it up to date its AI content material documentation “to get our documentation in sync with our shows we use at our developer occasions.” In different phrases, the message Google has been giving in particular person is now in writing.
From my perspective, Google places this steerage in writing in order that when an replace hits and website house owners are caught off guard, it may well level again to the documentation and present that the warnings had been there all alongside.
5. The GEO Techniques Look A Lot Like The Previous search engine marketing Techniques
Lots of the hottest GEO techniques proper now are previous search engine marketing spam techniques with a brand new label: mass-produced AI content material, self-promotional listicles the place a model ranks itself No. 1, pretend critiques and “inauthentic mentions” purchased to affect what AI instruments suggest, and automatic Reddit posting.
Whereas these approaches have undoubtedly labored properly to affect AI responses and citations to date, a few of that is already being cleaned up. In my analysis on self-promotional listicles cited in AI Overviews, the model that ranked itself #1 was unnoticed of the particular suggestion 69% of the time. I lately up to date this information, taking a look at 100 “greatest B2B software program” queries, and located that this pattern has grown even stronger in September 2026:
In comparison with June, Google’s AI Overviews now cite 38% fewer self-promotional “better of” listicles, and so they go away the publishing model out of the advice 83% of the time, up from 69% in June.
Additionally, in 70% of circumstances, the listicle is now serving to rivals get really useful whereas the model that revealed it’s unnoticed:
It’s not simply Google that’s taking motion in opposition to spam. In March, Reddit began labeling professional bot accounts and requiring some suspicious accounts to confirm they’re human. In July, it mentioned its automated techniques had been catching 25,000 spammy posts and feedback a day, as it really works to cease manufacturers from planting posts meant to get them really useful by ChatGPT and Gemini. Reddit additionally lately banned 4 subreddits utilized in a GEO experiment that relied on automation bots for upvotes and feedback.
6. Paid Mentions (Inauthentic Mentions) Are The New Paid Hyperlinks
Paid model mentions – that are mainly the 2026 model of paid hyperlink constructing, however centered on generative AI responses – deserve their very own warning. A rising variety of corporations now brazenly promote placements on different individuals’s websites, pitched as a strategy to get really useful by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews. Right here’s what’s being offered proper now:
- Placements in third-party “greatest X” and “high X” listicles, offered per placement and priced by the location’s Area Ranking or Area Authority, typically beginning round $135 to $250 every.
- Packages of “AI model mentions” added to current listicles, critiques, and shopping for guides, reminiscent of 5 mentions for $1,500.
- Listicle placements that assure a dofollow hyperlink.
- Company playbooks that say that if outreach doesn’t work, “many of those websites settle for paid placements” – typically for a one-time fee of $100 or $200.
- Absolutely managed “offsite” companies from AI visibility platforms that deal with writer outreach, content material, negotiation, and fee to land mentions on third-party websites.
- Integrations that ship the websites AI instruments cite to a placement community, which routinely handles outreach, drafting, negotiations, and fee, providing both fixed-price placements or “reverse mentions.”
When these placements embrace hyperlinks that move rating credit score, that is hyperlink shopping for with a brand new title. Google’s hyperlink spam coverage lists “exchanging cash for hyperlinks, or posts that include hyperlinks” as a violation. Paid hyperlinks are solely allowed after they’re certified with rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow,” and the FTC typically requires paid relationships behind endorsements to be clearly disclosed – one thing these gross sales pages not often point out. Google has additionally addressed paid mentions immediately: its information to generative AI options says “searching for inauthentic ‘mentions’ throughout the net isn’t as useful because it may appear,” and its spam insurance policies now cowl “trying to govern generative AI responses in Google Search.” At a Search Central Stay occasion in Could, Gary Illyes reportedly in contrast shopping for mentions to purchasing hyperlinks.
7. Spam Updates Are Coming Sooner
Google has launched 4 spam updates in 2026: March (24-25), June (24-26), August (18-21), and September (began on the twenty fourth). In all of 2025, there was just one. The time between them retains shrinking: 92 days from March to June, 55 from June to August, and 37 from August to September.
The September spam replace can be completely different from earlier spam updates. The primary three had been every anticipated to take “just a few days,” and every completed inside 3 days. September’s was given “as much as two weeks” – the identical window Google makes use of for core updates. Search Engine Roundtable noticed large motion from September 25 by 27, and the early indicators I noticed had been that it was hitting websites with extremely templated, programmatic, (seemingly) AI-generated pages, like one web page for each telephone quantity or space code. As of this writing, Google has not marked the September replace full.
Google has additionally been tightening its spam guidelines all yr, in keeping with its documentation:
- April 13: a brand new spam coverage in opposition to “again button hijacking.”
- April 14: Google mentioned it might now use spam stories to take handbook motion.
- Could 15: Google clarified that its spam insurance policies additionally apply to generative AI responses in Search, that means AI Overviews and AI Mode.
And Google probably has new instruments to implement them. In September, Search Engine Journal reported on a Google paper describing SAFE, a system constructed to detect AI-generated spam, which the paper says is already in early deployment (though it seems to be centered on video content material, for now).
Don’t Simply Take My Phrase For It
I’m not the one one who sees the warning indicators. Different business specialists who’ve spent years monitoring algorithm updates, handbook actions, and website recoveries have been saying the identical issues, typically and loudly.
Glenn Gabe
When you observe Glenn Gabe, you’ve in all probability observed that his warnings to website house owners have ramped up in current weeks. For one, he and Barry Schwartz spent minutes 8-10 on this “search engine marketing for Paws” charity webinar speaking concerning the probability of a giant replace coming quickly:
Glenn has been posting “Spam Replace Notes” all through the September spam replace, and has documented the August 2026 spam replace hitting scaled, programmatic, AI-generated, and skinny affiliate content material. After Google’s documentation adjustments this week, he wrote:
“For these nonetheless desirous to scale by way of AI or programmatic content material, Google is clearly attempting to inform you one thing.”
The subsequent day, he added:
“…with all the doc updates, and Google shows from the previous yr, I really feel like we’re going to see a really large replace from Google.”
He additionally pointed individuals to the brand new misleading authorship language, with one phrase: “BEWARE.”
Marie Haynes
Marie has been learning Google’s algorithms since 2008 and calls the useful content material documentation her favourite piece of Google’s steerage. In her breakdown of the adjustments, she wrote:
“When you give attention to the recommendation within the useful content material documentation, you might be more likely to align with what Google’s rating techniques purpose to reward!”
She connects the timing to Google’s new Gemini 4 Argon mannequin, noting that large jumps in mannequin functionality have typically been adopted by large rating adjustments. Her conclusion: “I predict we are going to quickly have a big core replace!”
Earlier this yr, she additionally wrote concerning the rise in pages caught in “crawled – at the moment not listed,” noting that in virtually each case she examined, the pages had high quality points.
Cyrus Shepard
Cyrus simply completed surveying greater than 130 search engine marketing specialists on what drives rankings in Google search and Google’s AI options. Content material high quality – outlined as originality, accuracy, and freshness – was one of many high three rating elements, and authentic analysis and first-party information ranked highest inside it. On what earns visibility in AI search, his write-up is blunt: “saying the identical factor as everybody else utilizing frequent details isn’t an effective way to get observed by AI.” What works as an alternative, as one knowledgeable quoted within the write-up put it, is “authentic information, a check someone really ran, a firsthand remark.”
After this week’s documentation adjustments, Cyrus known as the updates “vital,” pointing to the brand new part on effort, originality, expertise or talent, and accuracy, and to a brand new part on how content material was created, the place “Google seemingly needs you to reveal when AI automation is used.” When Marie replied asking whether or not Google wrote this “to arrange us for the aftermath of an upcoming replace,” Cyrus answered: “As Hamlet would say, ‘that’s the query.’”
Three search engine marketing specialists with completely different strategies and completely different shopper bases, all touchdown on the identical conclusion: Google is giving us ample clues about what its techniques need to reward, and what they’re about to start out demoting.
What I’ve Seen In My Personal Work This 12 months
I’ve spent a lot of 2026 working with corporations which have already been hit – some algorithmically, some with handbook actions. I’ve additionally spent the vast majority of the yr reverse-engineering the patterns amongst tons of of different corporations hit by Google’s spam, core, and unconfirmed updates. The websites are completely different, however the patterns are strikingly related.
- Content material revealed at a scale that human groups are unlikely to have the ability to produce. This may very well be tons of or 1000’s of pages added in a brief window, typically throughout matters the location has no actual expertise in. The dimensions typically adopted prior intervals of comparatively low publishing frequency.
- Templated, programmatic pages. One web page per metropolis, per telephone quantity, per product comparability, with only some phrases modified between them. This can be a model of doorway pages, and it’s been a typical sample amongst impacted websites for not less than 15 years.
- “Human within the loop” wasn’t sufficient. A number of websites claimed to have human editors reviewing the AI drafts. Google devalued them anyway, as a result of the issue wasn’t the standard of particular person sentences – it was the general sample and high quality of what the location was publishing.
- Authors who don’t exist, or who didn’t write the content material. I’ve discovered a number of examples of corporations utilizing made-up authors and AI-generated headshots – even when publishing on YMYL (your cash, your life) matters.
- Self-promotional content material aimed toward AI search. Listicles rating the model #1, and comparability pages written primarily to be cited by ChatGPT and AI Overviews. Many corporations hit by Google’s January 2026 unconfirmed replace revealed tons of, and even 1000’s, of such pages.
- The injury didn’t keep in Google’s natural outcomes. When these websites misplaced natural visibility, their citations in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and sometimes ChatGPT dropped too.
This is the reason I’ve moved most of my shoppers to a “much less is extra” content material technique, centered rather more on content material high quality and originality than on scale.
What To Do Earlier than The Subsequent Replace
No one outdoors Google is aware of when the subsequent large replace will land or precisely what it’ll goal, and all the pieces on this article is supposed to be an knowledgeable opinion based mostly on years of observing these patterns. However Google has advised us, in writing, what it considers low high quality. If any of those describe your website, now could be the time to repair them:
- Take a look at what you’ve revealed at scale. When you added giant quantities of AI-generated or templated content material, ask actually whether or not every web page presents something that isn’t already out there elsewhere. Probably the most aggressive strategy to put together is to take away a considerable quantity of this content material if it’s not performing properly. In any other case, closely edit and enhance it, or discover alternatives to scale it down or consolidate the content material.
- Audit your writer pages. Each writer ought to be an actual particular person, with an actual photograph, and credentials which are true. Change invented personas with actual individuals or an sincere crew byline. In case your website makes use of a generic title to publish on behalf of the corporate, present extra element about your editorial strategy and insurance policies.
- Think about disclosing whether or not and the way you employ AI. It isn’t required, however Google suggests including AI or automation disclosures the place readers would fairly count on them. Being upfront about how your content material was made additionally helps construct belief with readers.
- When you’re going to make use of AI to create content material, make certain an individual fact-checks and critiques all of it. That features the principle content material, titles, meta descriptions, structured information, and alt textual content, which Google now names explicitly.
- Rethink the self-promotional techniques aimed toward manipulating AI search responses, particularly when accomplished at scale. Listicles rating your self No. 1, paid mentions, and automatic Reddit posting are precisely the form of factor spam updates exist to catch. Whereas they’ve labored as a loophole for some time, many corporations have already been hit laborious for abusing these techniques this yr.
- Learn the supply materials your self. Google’s useful content material steerage, AI content material steerage, spam insurance policies, and the standard rater pointers.
The timing of when this replace may occur is unsure, however I do imagine it’s a matter of when, not if. Each time I’ve seen this many warning indicators line up – extra spam updates, rewritten pointers, Google workers repeating the identical message on stage – a giant replace has adopted. And in my expertise, it’s a lot simpler to scrub issues up earlier than the replace than to spend a yr recovering after it.
Extra Sources:
This publish was initially revealed on Lily Ray NYC Substack.
Featured Picture: Igor Hyperlink/Shutterstock
