Google released the August 2026 Spam Update on August 18, 2026, and said it expected to complete it within a few days.
Google’s Official Announcement
Google announced the August 2026 Spam Update on its X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn pages. On LinkedIn, Google clarified that this was a normal spam update, removing any doubts that it may have been a link spam update.
Today we released the August 2026 spam update. We'll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete: https://t.co/O9HQqBPAwY
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) August 18, 2026
What Are People Saying?
As with most Google updates, creators did not react positively to the August 2026 Spam Update.
In response to Google’s X post, João Neves commented that millions of legitimate websites and businesses had suffered huge losses due to Google’s previous spam updates.
Last time you launch this, millions of legitimate websites and businesses suffered huge losses.
— João Neves (@jon_snow_pt) August 18, 2026
Janxpm also complained about their site losing most of its traffic sometime after August 13, 2026, at least five days before Google released the August 2026 Spam Update.
I use my own app almost every day, why do I get nuked like that? This feels like censorship. pic.twitter.com/VCy7ZL4kEu
— janxpm (@janxpm) August 19, 2026
Barry Schwartz also shared a comment from Google’s John Mueller, who, in response to someone who suspected their traffic loss was caused by an update, clarified that Google does not roll out updates before announcing them.
This means volatilities and traffic losses observed in the days leading to a Google update are unrelated to that update.
Google's @johnmu says Google does not release updates, like the Spam update, prior to announcing it – so the volatility you saw a few days ago was unrelated to this announced update https://t.co/RehB2ggG8y pic.twitter.com/4q8qswfmGP
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) August 19, 2026
Previous Spam Updates
The August 2026 Spam Update is Google’s third spam update of 2026. Notably, it is the only confirmed Google update since the June 2026 Spam Update, making this two spam updates in a row with no core or link spam update between them.
Here are the other spam updates we have monitored and reported.
- June 2026 Spam Update: June 24 – June 26, 2026
- March 2026 Spam Update: March 24 – March 25, 2026
- August 2025 Spam Update: August 26 – September 22, 2025
- December 2024 Spam Update: December 19 – December 26, 2024
- June 2024 Spam Update: June 20 – June 27, 2024
- March 2024 Spam Update: March 5 – March 20, 2024
- October 2023 Spam Update: October 4 – October 20, 2023
- December 2022 Link Spam Update: December 14, 2022 – January 12, 2023
- October 2022 Spam Update: October 19 – October 21, 2022
- November 2021 Anti-Spam Update: November 3 – November 11, 2021
- Link Spam Update: July 26 – August 24, 2021
- Anti-Spam Update II: June 29, 2021
- Anti-Spam Update: June 23, 2021
What’s Next – Dealing with This Update
The August 2026 Spam Update is ongoing at the moment, and there is no widespread volatility or traffic loss. However, you should continue to monitor your site using Rank Math Analytics. If you lost traffic, then you should review your site and content to ensure they comply with Google Search Essentials spam policies.
