Google's Search Status Dashboard now marks the September 2026 spam update as finished: it began at 09:15 on September 24, 2026 and ended at 01:00 on October 8 (both US/Pacific), and the dashboard lists its duration as 13 days, 16 hours. At 01:37 Pacific on October 8, Google added an update: "The rollout was complete as of October 8, 2026." We covered the background when the update began on September 24; this is the follow-up.

Longer Than Both of This Year's Core Updates

At launch Google said the rollout could take up to two weeks; it took 13 days 16 hours, using almost all of that. Against 2026's other entries on the dashboard: the March spam update ran 19 hours 30 minutes, June 2 days 1 hour and August 2 days 16 hours (see our August piece), while the two core updates ran 12 days 4 hours (March) and 11 days 21 hours (May). So this spam update rolled out for longer than either of this year's core updates; among this year's ranking entries on the dashboard, only February's Discover update (21 days 17 hours) ran longer. Over a longer horizon, though, the August 2025 spam update ran 26 days 15 hours, so "spam updates are always quick" is not a rule. Google has not said what kind of violation it targeted. As of October 12, the dashboard lists no new October event.

You Can Compare Now — With the Right Windows

  • Baseline: September 10 to 23 — 14 days, Thursday to Wednesday, with no ranking event on the dashboard.
  • Result window: the same 14 days starting October 8, i.e. October 8 to 21 — also Thursday to Wednesday, with the same mix of weekdays and weekends. That data is only complete once the period is over; until then, a 7-day-against-7-day comparison shows you the direction.
  • Don't draw conclusions from September 24 to October 7. That was the rollout, and the volatility is spread across the whole window.
  • If the result window roughly matches the baseline, the update most likely passed you by; if it is clearly lower, dig further.

If You Really Did Drop

Google's documentation on spam updates is blunt: sites that see a change should review the spam policies to make sure they comply, and after making changes, a site may improve only if Google's automated systems learn over a period of months that it complies. This does not recover the day after you fix it. Two more distinctions matter:

  • Check the Manual actions report in Search Console first. If there is an entry there, you are dealing with a manual action, not this algorithmic update, and the route is to fix the issue and request a review.
  • Link problems are different. The documentation notes that when a link spam update removes the effect of spammy links, any ranking benefit those links once generated is lost and cannot be regained by making changes.

Rule Out Your Own Changes First

A two-week rollout easily overlaps with your own work. If you moved servers, touched robots.txt or canonicals, or served 5xx errors in the same period, eliminate those first — the method is in our August 26 diagnostic piece. Servers affect rankings through the indirect TTFB path, and does server location affect SEO explains how to judge it; if you run rank tracking on a VPS, choosing a VPS for SEO tools covers sizing, so the monitor itself doesn't break down and invent volatility.