Google launches the August 2025 spam update: global reach and new measures against low-quality content

Google has caused disruption once again. When it seemed that the summer was concluding with a certain degree of calm in the SEO world, the company surprised everyone with the launch of a new spam update. It has only been two months since its last core update in June, and now search engine operators, webmasters, and digital marketing professionals will need to be vigilant regarding the effects that this update will bring, as it began rolling out globally on August 26, 2025 and will take a few weeks to complete.

This is the first spam update of the year and also the first in eight months, since the one released in December 2024. Furthermore, it represents the first algorithmic change that Google has announced since the June 2025 core update, which increases anticipation among webmasters and SEO professionals.

What a spam update involves

Although in many instances these types of updates are associated with the detection of toxic links, Google reminds us that the fight against spam in search encompasses a much broader range of practices that undermine the quality of the results. Among these are:

• Cloaking and deceptive redirects.
• Abuse of doorway pages and expired domains.
• Pirated content, malware, and malicious practices.
• Keyword stuffing, hidden text, and irrelevant links.
• Link spam and worthless affiliations.
• Automatically generated traffic or traffic created through unauthorized tools.
• Abuse of the reputation of trusted sites.
• Data scraping and large-scale content produced for search engines.
• User-generated spam in forums and comment sections.

The objective is clear: to reduce the visibility of pages created to manipulate rankings, and to give priority to useful, original, and relevant content.

Today we released the August 2025 spam update.

It may take a few weeks to complete, and we’ll post on the Google Search Status Dashboard when the rollout is done:https://t.co/VyY24LVujq

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) August 26, 2025

An update in context

The last spam update was rolled out between December 19 and 26, 2024 and was especially volatile, with a significant impact on the ranking of many websites. Prior to that, Google had released the June 2024 update, which was shorter in duration.

For this reason, the current rollout will be closely monitored: as it is a global update and will last several weeks, it is likely that many websites will experience noticeable changes in visibility and organic traffic.

Google recommends that site owners review their spam policies and avoid practices that may violate its guidelines, as sites that are not compliant may observe drastic declines in their rankings or even be removed entirely from the results.

The company has reiterated the role of SpamBrain, its artificial intelligence-based prevention system, which is periodically updated to detect new forms of spam. This system operates continuously, but from time to time it receives significant improvements that Google announces under the name of spam updates.

In practice, this means that although the changes may be felt immediately, recovery only comes with time and after demonstrating that a site complies with the guidelines. In the case of link spam updates, the benefits gained through manipulated links are permanently removed and cannot be regained.

What to expect in the coming weeks

Google has not specified which types of spam are the focus of this update. However, if a site experiences changes in its ranking or traffic in the next few weeks, it is very likely that these are related to the rollout of the August 2025 spam update.

In summary, Google continues to refine its fight against low-quality practices to strengthen the integrity of its search results, in an environment where automated content and link manipulation remain significant challenges.