Key facts

• Rollout: 24 September – 8 October 2026 (about two weeks; Google had said it “may take up to two weeks”)
• Scope: global, all languages
• Type: an update to Google’s spam-detection systems, not a core update
• In 2026: the fourth spam update of the year, after the March, June and August updates

Google rolled out an update to its spam detection systems. According to the Google Search Status Dashboard, the rollout started on 24 September 2026 and was completed on 8 October 2026.

What changed

The update applies globally and to all languages – including Slovenian, Croatian, German and Italian search results. Google does not publish the details of what each spam update targets. Its systems, including the AI-based SpamBrain, are continuously improved to detect sites that break the spam policies.

Why it matters for businesses

If your website lost traffic between 24 September and 8 October, check whether it breaks Google’s spam policies. Google says that sites affected by a spam update should review the policies and fix any problems; improvement can come once its automated systems learn over a period of months that the site complies. For link spam updates there is an important difference: if a site benefited from spammy links and those links are now ignored, the lost benefit cannot be regained by fixing the links.

What it means in Central and Eastern Europe

Spam updates are not limited to English. In smaller markets, a few sites with aggressive tactics – mass-produced city or product pages, machine-translated content, purchased links on unrelated sites – can dominate results for a long time, and updates like this one can change local rankings noticeably. If your competitors suddenly dropped or rose in Slovenian or Croatian results in early October, this update is a likely explanation.

Checklist: what to check now

• Compare organic traffic a week before 24 September with the weeks after 8 October in Search Console – separately for each country.
• Check Search Console for manual actions and security issues.
• Look for pages produced at scale with little added value (scaled content abuse), including machine-translated pages.
• Review your backlink profile and any paid or exchanged links that do not carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".
• If you host third-party content, check it against the site reputation abuse policy.
• Fix the causes, then give it time – avoid quick, large-scale changes based on guesses.

Not sure how a Google update affects your website? Ask us for a review →

Key facts

• When: 1 October 2026 (Google Search Central documentation update)
• What: the guidance on using generative AI content was brought in line with the Search Quality Rater Guidelines
• Who is affected: every website that uses AI for text, images, metadata or product data
• Action: add a human fact-check before anything AI-generated goes live

Google updated its guidance on using generative AI for website content and aligned it with its Search Quality Rater Guidelines. According to Google’s changelog, the aim was to bring the documentation in sync with the presentations Google gives at its developer events.

What changed

Google does not ban AI. The guidance still describes generative AI as useful for researching a topic and for adding structure to original content. What it makes much more explicit is the responsibility of the publisher:

• Human review for accuracy. Language models predict likely words, so their output can contain made-up facts (“hallucinations”). All AI-generated content should be fact-checked by a person before it is published.
• Metadata counts too. The review applies not only to the visible text, but also to title elements, meta descriptions, structured data and image alt text. Structured data should also be validated.
• Scale without value is spam. Generating many pages without adding value for users may violate Google’s scaled content abuse policy.
• Context for users. Google recommends giving readers context about how a piece of content was created where they would reasonably expect it.
• Online shops. For Merchant Center, AI-generated images need the IPTC DigitalSourceType metadata (TrainedAlgorithmicMedia), and AI-generated product data such as titles and descriptions must be labelled as such.

The guidance points to the sections of the Search Quality Rater Guidelines that deal with low-effort and scaled content (sections 4.6.5 and 4.6.6). Google’s page on creating helpful content also describes what raters look for in a page’s main content: the effort behind it, its originality, the talent or skill involved, and its accuracy.

Why it matters for businesses

If you use AI to write product descriptions, blog posts or meta descriptions, a human review step before publishing is no longer optional – it is what Google explicitly expects. The risk is not that a page “looks like AI”, but that it contains wrong facts, repeats what is available everywhere, or exists only to target a keyword.

What it means in Central and Eastern Europe

In smaller languages such as Slovenian, Croatian, Slovak or Hungarian, AI tools tend to make more grammar and terminology mistakes, and they often translate English sources instead of reflecting local facts – prices, laws, place names, local suppliers. Machine-translated pages that are published for many countries at once are exactly the “scale without value” pattern the guidance warns about. A native-speaking reviewer who checks facts and local relevance is the safest way to use AI in these markets.

Checklist: what to do now

• List the pages and product feeds where AI was used, including meta descriptions and alt text generated in bulk.
• Introduce a review step: a person checks facts, names, numbers and claims before publishing.
• Validate structured data with the Rich Results Test after every template or AI-assisted change.
• Merge or improve thin pages that were produced only to cover keyword variations.
• Add something AI cannot: your own experience, photos, data, case studies or expert opinion.
• For online shops, check the Merchant Center requirements for AI-generated images and product data.
• For multilingual sites, have each language version reviewed by a native speaker who knows the local market.

Not sure how a Google update affects your website? Ask us for a review →

Key facts

• Introduced: 3 June 2026, initially for a subset of sites
• Available for all sites: since 31 August 2026
• Two reports: Search (AI Overviews and AI Mode) and Discover
• Data: impressions by page, country, device and date

Google added separate performance reports for its generative AI features to Search Console. At first only some sites had access; since 31 August 2026 the reports are available for all sites.

What changed

There are two new reports: one for Search (AI Overviews and AI Mode) and one for Discover. They show impressions, pages, countries and devices (for Search) and trends over time, with hourly, daily, weekly and monthly views. For now, the reports show impressions only – not clicks or queries.

According to the Search Console Help page, the Search report covers web results for both text-based and multimodal searches, such as Google Lens and Circle to Search. Dates are shown in Pacific Time, tables are limited to 1,000 rows and the data can be exported. The same data is also included in the overall Performance report. Search Labs experiments are not included.

Why the report may be empty

Google lists two main reasons: the site does not have enough impressions in generative AI features yet, or the site has been excluded from Search generative AI features (a setting in Search Console). If you have used nosnippet or similar controls, check that they are not blocking pages you want to appear in AI answers.

Why it matters for businesses

For the first time, official Google data shows which of your pages appear in AI answers. This is a solid basis for reporting and for deciding which content to create or improve – instead of relying on third-party estimates.

What it means in Central and Eastern Europe

AI Mode has been available in Slovenia and Croatia and in Slovenian, Croatian, German and Italian since October 2025. With the country filter you can now see in which of your markets your pages appear in AI features – which is especially useful for multilingual sites that target several CEE countries with separate language versions.

Checklist: how to use the report

• Open the report in each Search Console property and note which pages get AI impressions.
• Filter by country to compare your markets, for example Slovenia, Croatia and Austria.
• Compare AI impressions with classic impressions and clicks for the same pages in the Performance report.
• Check that important pages are indexed and eligible for snippets.
• Export the data monthly, because the tables are limited to 1,000 rows.
• Remember that dates are in Pacific Time when you compare with analytics data.

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Key facts

• Announced: 28 August 2026 on the Google Search Central Blog
• In effect: from 30 August 2026
• Background: discussions with the European Commission under the Digital Markets Act (DMA)
• Where: the change applies to users in the European Economic Area (EEA)

Following discussions with the European Commission under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Google changed how its site reputation abuse policy applies in the European Economic Area.

What is site reputation abuse?

Google introduced the policy in 2024. It targets sites that publish third-party pages – for example coupon, review or affiliate sections run by someone else – mainly to benefit from the ranking signals of the host site. Hosting third-party content is not a problem in itself: Google looks at how it is presented, its quality, authorship, and whether the same content appears across many sites. Google gives a coupon section as an example where it is unlikely to take action if the content is closely overseen and serves the site’s own audience.

What changed

Google no longer enforces manual actions under the site reputation abuse policy for users in the EEA. Outside the EEA, a manual action still affects the section of the site concerned. In the EEA, the impact of such a manual action does not apply; instead Google’s systems may, over time, treat such a section separately so that it ranks independently of the rest of the domain. Previous manual actions under this policy have been lifted for the EEA.

Search Console notifications remain. Google has also described a new reconsideration process for the EEA and an option of alternative dispute resolution (mediation) for eligible sites.

Why it matters for businesses

Media portals, magazines and large sites that host partner content can now see different behaviour in EU and non-EU search results. A section that previously had a manual action may no longer be penalised in the EEA – but it may also stop benefiting from the reputation of the main domain.

What it means in Central and Eastern Europe

Slovenia, Croatia, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania are EU members, so the EEA rules apply to their search results. Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and other non-EU countries in the region are outside the EEA, where the previous enforcement still applies. For publishers active across the Balkans, rankings for the same section can therefore differ between neighbouring countries.

Checklist: what to do now

• If you host coupons, reviews, partner or sponsored sections, check who produces and oversees that content.
• Make sure third-party content is clearly labelled, edited and relevant to your own audience.
• Check Search Console for notifications about the site reputation abuse policy.
• For sites active in EU and non-EU countries, compare the rankings of such sections by country.
• For sponsored articles, use rel="sponsored" on paid links.

Not sure how a Google update affects your website? Ask us for a review →

Key facts

• December 2025 core update: 11–29 December 2025
• March 2026 core update: 27 March – 8 April 2026
• May 2026 core update: 21 May – 2 June 2026
• Scope: global, all languages

In the past six months Google released three broad core updates. Each took around two weeks or more to roll out and applied globally, in all languages.

What changed

Core updates are broad changes to how Google’s systems assess content overall. They do not target specific sites or techniques. In December 2025 Google also added a note to its documentation: besides the announced updates, it continuously releases smaller core updates that are not announced – so improving your content can lead to better results without waiting for the next big update.

How to tell whether you were affected

Google recommends waiting until a rollout is complete, then waiting at least another week, and comparing a week before the update with a week after it in Search Console. A small drop of a few positions is different from a large drop across many queries. It is also worth analysing web, image, video and news search separately, because they can be affected differently.

Why it matters for businesses

Traffic swings during a core update are not a penalty but a reassessment of content quality. The right response is to keep improving your content over the long term – not quick technical fixes. Google also notes that deleting content should be a last resort, and that recovery can take months, often until the next core update.

What it means in Central and Eastern Europe

Core updates apply to all languages at the same time, so Slovenian, Croatian or Hungarian results move together with English ones. In smaller markets with fewer competing pages, one strong or weak site can move a lot. If several markets dropped at once, look first at shared causes – templates, translated content, product pages that are similar across all language versions.

Checklist: what to do after a core update

• Confirm on the Google Search Status Dashboard that the rollout is complete.
• Wait at least a week, then compare a week before and after the update in Search Console.
• Separate the analysis by search type, country and page type.
• Use Google’s self-assessment questions on helpful content for the pages that lost the most.
• Improve the content: accuracy, expertise, original information, up-to-date facts.
• Avoid quick fixes and mass deletions; record what you change so you can measure it later.

Update, October 2026: After these three core updates, Google also rolled out a spam update from 24 September to 8 October 2026. The chart compares the official rollout durations. Read about the September 2026 spam update →

Not sure how a Google update affects your website? Ask us for a review →

Key facts

• Published: 15 May 2026, announced on the Google Search Central Blog
• Covers: AI Overviews, AI Mode and other generative AI features in Google Search
• Main message: optimizing for AI search (“AEO” or “GEO”) is still SEO
• Also on 15 May: Google clarified that its spam policies also apply to generative AI responses

Google published a guide on how to optimize pages for the generative AI features in Search – AI Overviews and AI Mode – and announced it on its Search Central Blog.

How AI answers find your page

The guide explains that Google’s AI features ground their answers in pages from the index (retrieval-augmented generation). For a complex question, the system can run several related searches at once (“query fan-out”) and combine the results. That is why the same pages that rank well in classic search are also the ones most likely to be cited.

What changed

The key message is that these features rely on the same ranking systems as classic search, so classic SEO remains the foundation. Google emphasizes:

• Non-commodity content – original information and a unique point of view that is not available everywhere else.
• Clear structure – headings and well-organised pages, plus high-quality images and video.
• Technical basics – the page must be crawlable, indexed and eligible for snippets, and the site must not be excluded from Search generative AI features. Semantic HTML is not required; JavaScript sites should follow Google’s JavaScript SEO best practices; page experience and reducing duplicates still matter.
• Merchant Center and Google Business Profile – up-to-date product and business data helps for shopping and local questions.

Myths the guide addresses

Google lists common “AEO/GEO” advice that is not needed for Google Search: special files, splitting content into “chunks” for AI, rewriting pages specifically for AI, creating inauthentic mentions of your brand, and over-focusing on structured data. It also warns against creating a page for every possible fan-out query, which can be scaled content abuse, and against third-party tools that claim to show Google’s internal metrics.

Why it matters for businesses

There is no need to pay for special “AI SEO” tricks or markup. Your budget is better spent on quality content, a technically sound website and a well-maintained Google Business Profile.

What it means in Central and Eastern Europe

In Slovenian, Croatian or Hungarian there is far less high-quality content than in English, so original, local information – local prices, regulations, examples and experience – has a good chance of being used and cited. A complete Google Business Profile in the local language matters for “near me” questions, and multilingual sites should keep each language version indexable with correct hreflang.

Checklist: what to do now

• Check that your key pages are indexed and not blocked from snippets.
• In Search Console, check that the site is not excluded from Search generative AI features.
• Add original information to important pages: your experience, data, photos and examples.
• Structure pages with clear headings and answer the main question early.
• Keep Google Business Profile and Merchant Center data current.
• Skip paid “AI SEO” extras that promise shortcuts.

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Update, 15 June 2026: Google added to its documentation that llms.txt files are not needed for Google Search and do not affect rankings.

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Key facts

• Stopped: FAQ rich results no longer appear starting 7 May 2026
• Announced: deprecation notice in the Search Central documentation updates on 8 May 2026
• Affects: the expandable questions and answers shown below a search result
• Markup: FAQPage structured data can stay; it causes no errors, but has no visible effect

Google stopped showing FAQ rich results – the expandable questions and answers below a search result – and announced the deprecation in its documentation updates.

What changed

FAQ rich results no longer appear in Google Search. It is part of a wider simplification of the results page, in which Google has already retired several types of structured data. Google had already limited FAQ rich results to a small group of well-known, authoritative government and health websites in 2023; now they are gone completely.

Why it matters for businesses

Pages that used to show FAQ snippets may see a lower click-through rate, even if their rankings stay the same, because the result takes up less space. You do not have to remove existing FAQPage markup, but it no longer has a visible effect in Google – so it is not a priority for new projects.

FAQ sections themselves are still useful: they answer real questions from customers on the page, and that content can still be shown in classic results and used by AI features. What disappears is only the special display in search results.

What it means in Central and Eastern Europe

Many Slovenian and Croatian sites added FAQ blocks to service and product pages mainly for the extra space in search results. Those blocks do not need to be removed, but there is no reason to keep FAQ plugins or markup that slow down the site, and the questions should be the ones your customers actually ask in their own language.

Checklist: what to do now

• In Search Console, compare the click-through rate of pages that had FAQ rich results before and after 7 May.
• Keep FAQ sections that help visitors; remove ones that only repeat keywords.
• Do not add FAQPage markup to new projects just for Google.
• Remove FAQ plugins or scripts that slow pages down without helping users.
• Focus structured data on types that still bring visible results, such as Product, Organization or Breadcrumb.

Update, 15 June 2026: Google removed the documentation for FAQ rich results from Search Central.

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Key facts

• Announced: 7 October 2025 on the Google Blog
• Expansion: 35+ new languages and 40+ new countries and territories – over 200 in total, many of them in Europe
• Our region: Slovenia and Croatia; languages include Slovenian, Croatian, German and Italian
• Rollout: over the following week

Google expanded AI Mode in Search to more than 35 new languages and more than 40 new countries and territories – over 200 in total.

What is AI Mode?

AI Mode is a separate search experience in Google Search. It answers longer, more complex questions with an AI-generated response and links to sources. According to Google, it is powered by a custom version of its Gemini model, and questions in AI Mode are nearly three times longer than traditional searches.

What changed

The new markets include Slovenia and Croatia, and the supported languages include Slovenian, Croatian, German and Italian. Users in these countries can now ask complex questions in their own language and get an AI answer with links to the sources it used.

Why it matters for businesses

In our markets, too, some users now get their answer directly in Google. It is therefore increasingly important for businesses to be cited as a source in AI answers. The foundations are the same as for classic SEO: pages that are indexed, useful and trustworthy.

What it means in Central and Eastern Europe

Until now, many AI search features reached English-speaking markets first. With Slovenian and Croatian support, local businesses compete for visibility in AI answers in their own language. Because there is less high-quality content in these languages, original local pages – with clear facts about products, services, locations and prices – have a real chance of being used as sources. Businesses in tourism, retail and professional services should check how they appear for longer, conversational questions about their field.

Checklist: what to do now

• Try AI Mode with the longer questions your customers ask, in Slovenian and Croatian.
• Check whether your pages are cited as sources – and which competitors are.
• Make sure your key pages are indexed and eligible for snippets.
• Improve pages that answer complex questions: clear structure, up-to-date facts, your own experience.
• Keep your Google Business Profile complete in the local language.

Update, September 2026: Since 31 August 2026 Search Console shows impressions in AI Mode and AI Overviews for all sites. Read about the new reports →

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Fraggles used to be almost irrelevant as far as SEO is concerned. Today, however, many experts even recommend adding these URLs in the sitemap. This used to be extremely unwanted since it results in duplicate content. But, this issue is now gone as Google shows several of these URLs as standalone pages in its Search Console.

https://moz.com/blog/the-importance-of-fraggles

Google has actually been supporting “fraggles” since prehistory or as far back as 2009 (https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/jump-to-information-you-want-right-from.html). But, this view changed recently. It is not a separate line this time and instead, the link is already directly integrated into the description. This functionality has also come to life not too long ago.

What is this all about?

A good example is the Slovenian website storitev.com.

How is this result achieved?

For example, this article on car engine parts contains a table of contents (TOC).

This article also includes labels on the subtitles.

https://www.storitev.com/avto-moto/najvaznejsi-deli-avtomobilskega-motorja/#Zamenjava_motorja

What does it mean for SEO?

There is now a new tool that has made it relatively easier to expand the set of landing pages. One common issue with such pages it that it has become inappropriate for the page to post almost thrice identical content for three words that are closely related. This allows you to come up with a landing page for three or more different words from a single article that can rank independent or as part of a whole. 

It is important to equip all informative content. 

<li> <a href="#Keyword Subtitle"> Keyword Subtitle </a> </li>

However, interspaces are being referred to as

<span id = "Keyword Subtitle"> Keyword Subtitle </span>

Any of these combinations can be a new targeted keyword and a new landing page. 

Updated October 2026: Google calls these deep links to page sections “jump links” in featured snippets and other results. See Google’s documentation on featured snippets.

If so, it is likely that you overlooked or even failed to receive the latest message from GSC last March 2019 that is somewhat different from previous alerts. 

What does the GSC message mean?

The message from GSC means that Google already started considering structural information as one factor in page quality. This is something that has been under monitoring ever since the expansive mobile search engine switch that happened last August.

When you speak of structural data, it means that the pages include additional information in a particular product case. The information cannot be seen on the page as this is included in the code. You can check structured data with Google’s Rich Results Test or the Schema Markup Validator (the old Structured Data Testing Tool has been retired).

It may seem complicated, but you don’t have to worry

Most of the time, the issue can be solved with the installation of the right plugin. WordPress, for instance, supports Yoast basics installed on many WordPress installations. There are also dedicated plugins such as https://wordpress.org/plugins/schema-and-structured-data-for-wp/. 

The same applies to other CMSs

For Magento, several extension developers offer structured data modules, for example Magmodules.

For PrestaShop, structured data modules are available in the official PrestaShop Addons marketplace.

The solutions are available for all systems. These come at affordable prices and some are even free. Make sure you install them right away.

Updated October 2026: Google’s current introduction to structured data is available in Google Search Central. Note that Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in May 2026 – see our news post.