Update watch Spam update, Sep 24 to Oct 8
The same 10,000 searches, scanned before and after each confirmed Google update. What gained, what lost, and which customer sites moved.
Results changed in top 1014%typical spam update: 4–6%
Customer sites down 20%+3 of 412all reviewed by Marco
Customer sites up 20%+27mostly local services
Pages that lost the most
| Thousands of near-identical city pages | −61% |
| Third-party coupon and review sections on news sites | −48% |
| AI-written pages with no author and no sources | −22% |
What we changed
1
City pages stay off by default
Playbook v14Safety rule tightened: unique data per page required.
2
Every fact needs a source link
Playbook v14Was a warning; now blocks publishing.
✓
Tests resumed Oct 9
Paused during the rollout so results weren't mixed up.