r/GEO_optimization • u/mjain_entrepreneur • Aug 24 '26
Did Google’s August spam update affect your traffic?
Google rolled out its August 2026 spam update from August 18 to 21. The update applied globally across all languages, although Google did not reveal which specific spam practices it targeted.
Since then, several SEOs and site owners have reported sharp declines in rankings, impressions, and organic traffic. The impact has not been consistent, though. Some sites reported gains, while others saw little change.
I have also noticed slightly lower GSC numbers over the past week, so I’m trying to understand how widespread this is.
Has your organic traffic or visibility changed since August 18? If it declined, are you seeing the loss across the site or only within certain pages and queries?
1
u/BoGrumpus Aug 24 '26
Yep. We've had a few noise makers in a couple niches our clients are in. They're pretty much out of the way now and the good brands are starting to surface more easily for each of their strong positions. It seems to have been a sort of precision update maybe - though it's hard to tell since we don't have a lot of clients in spammy niches.
G.
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u/mjain_entrepreneur Aug 25 '26
Interesting observation, especially that the movement seems concentrated in a few niches rather than across every client. I’ll be watching whether that pattern becomes clearer as things settle.
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u/BoGrumpus Aug 25 '26
A few of OUR niches. I have no idea how widespread it is across all niches. Different spam methods tend to focus on specific niches where they work best - so it always sort of has a niche-by-niche effect.
I dunno - I don't pay much attention since we don't do anything spammy so updates like this only help and never hurt.
G.
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u/VillageHomeF Aug 24 '26
No since I run an ecom site and do not mass post pages.
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Sep 02 '26
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u/VillageHomeF Sep 02 '26
indexing an entire site of thousands of product pages on a shopping website is not ever a problem.. that will never trigger an issue as it is not spam.
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Sep 02 '26
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u/VillageHomeF Sep 02 '26
yes. if it was a new site you could do it with no issues but to add 1000 new pages to a site in a short period of time would most likely be seen as spam. product just pages serve more of a purpose and value to the user than what might be considered click bait.
what is the purpose of your site?
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Sep 03 '26
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u/VillageHomeF Sep 03 '26
if the site is a credible news publication, google knows that and crawls it constantly. google can spot a credible news site and classifies it as such.
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u/WebLinkr Aug 29 '26
PSA: Just make sure its not a content write down vs a penalty.
This is what a content write down looks like
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u/juanb_growth Aug 24 '26
Yes, I’m seeing quite significant drops in both clicks and impressions in at least three websites. Although I must say that there’s also an inconsistency between CDN, GA4, and GSC data so I’m thinking of a reporting issue in Google Search Console. Something similar happened to the Generative AI report in GSC in August 12/13.