On August 18, around 16:30 UTC, Google launched its August 2026 spam update, which affects all languages and regions. According to Google, the rollout may take several days to complete.
This marks the third spam update of 2026, following the updates in March and June. Google characterizes this update as a standard one.
According to Search Engine Roundtable, the update does not impact link spam or the policies regarding site reputation abuse. For websites that have lost rankings, Google recommends checking their spam policies and warns that recovery may take several months.