Google’s August 2026 spam update hit rankings harder than normal

Google’s August 2026 spam update saw an 82% summation successful apical 10 URLs dropping retired of the apical 100 compared pinch a play without a confirmed ranking update, according to caller SE Ranking data.

During the update, 16.71% of URLs that had classed successful Google’s apical 10 fell beyond position 100 for the aforesaid keyword, compared pinch 9.2% during a akin five-day play successful July. That made a apical 10 URL astir 1.8 times much apt to vanish from the apical 100 during the spam update.

By the numbers. Here’s immoderate information SE Ranking shared pinch MCP:

SE Ranking pulled a group of baseline information from a fewer days before the update rolled retired to comparison the comparative volatility, looking astatine immoderate rank movement.

SE Ranking saw a 12% summation successful the percentage of URLs ranking top 3 post-update that prior to it didn’t even crack the apical 20.

SE Ranking highlighted this arsenic the astir absorbing information point: the summation successful the percent of URLs Google killed disconnected from the apical 100 — 82% much than the baseline play showed. 

Volatility spanned each 20 niches. The ranking volatility was wide crossed the 20 industries SE Ranking tracked.

• Top 10 volatility ranged from 74.64% successful existent property to 85.55% successful manner and beauty.
• YMYL categories, including existent property and healthcare, were among the steadiest.
• The information doesn’t show whether peculiar types of sites, content, aliases spam strategies were disproportionately affected. SE Ranking didn’t behaviour a URL- aliases domain-level study of the pages that mislaid rankings aliases the pages that replaced them.

Why we care. Moving from Google’s apical 10 to beyond position 100 is simply a immense ranking nonaccomplishment compared to day-to-day hunt volatility. The 82% summation indicates really disruptive the August 2026 spam update was compared pinch Google’s normal hunt churn.

About the data. SE Ranking analyzed U.S. integrated Google results for the aforesaid 100,000 keywords crossed 20 industries. It compared rankings from Aug. 17 and Aug. 22, instantly earlier and aft the spam update, pinch a baseline comparison of July 26 and July 31, erstwhile Google had nary confirmed ranking update. SE Ranking only tracked positions 1 done 100, truthful the information doesn’t show whether the URLs that vanished were deindexed aliases simply fell beneath position 100. It besides doesn’t explicate why those peculiar pages mislaid their rankings.