Google's September Spam Update Rolls Out Over Two Weeks

Google's September spam update has started rolling out, and it will take up to two weeks to complete. This is the longest spam rollout of the year, with each previous update taking significantly less time to finish. The March update was done in 19.5 hours, June's took 48 hours, and August's ran for three days.

The industry's ability to measure the effects of the update has narrowed sharply over the same period. Google Search Central's post on the September update added little information, stating only that it is a normal spam update that will roll out for all languages and locations. There was no blog post, new policy, or list of targeted queries provided.

Google's chief scientist for search, Pandu Nayak, has called an inquiry into site reputation abuse policies by the European Commission 'misguided.' The September update is the first confirmed ranking release since Google stopped applying manual actions to users in the European Economic Area. This means a site running third-party content on a strong domain can now face different outcomes depending on where the searcher sits.