Web News Today: Google Spam Update, AI Mode and Search Console

Here is your web news briefing for 29 September 2026 from Agence Web Tunis: Google is running its longest spam update of the year, AI Mode tracking is now open to everyone, and Search Console keeps evolving. Here is what it means for your site.

The September 2026 spam update

Google started its September 2026 spam update on 24 September at 9:15 a.m. Pacific. According to PPC Land, the rollout may take up to two weeks, until 8 October, making it the longest this year after March (about 19 hours), June (48 hours) and August (three days). Google calls it a normal spam update for all languages and locations, with no new policies announced.

It enforces existing rules: expired domain abuse, scaled content abuse, site reputation abuse, doorway pages, back button hijacking, and fake or undisclosed incentivized reviews. Search Engine Roundtable reports significant volatility across the SEO community this weekend.

What to do this week

• Avoid sweeping site changes during the rollout; movements are hard to interpret until it ends.
• Audit mass-generated content, customer reviews, duplicate pages and back button behavior.
• Track rankings in Search Console against the previous period.

AI Mode: tracking opens to all users

Per Search Engine Roundtable (28 September), Google expanded a monitoring feature in AI Mode globally; it was first limited to paid subscribers and is now available to all. Google is also testing interface changes in AI Overviews. Clear, sourced and well-structured content is more likely to be cited in generated answers.

Search Console and site reputation policy

The Google Search Central blog lists a September post on multimodal search performance reporting in Search Console and an August update to the site reputation abuse policy. Read the official blog for details before acting.

Summary for your site

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