The August 2025 Spam Update was announced on August 26, 2025, and completed on the 22nd September2025. Data, analysis, and rankings of the affected domains will be gradually added to this article.
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Latest update:22nd September 2025 – The rollout is complete. An overview is available below.
- Google’s status page for the Core Update Start date: 26th August 2025. End date: 22nd September 2025
- For detailed information and data on all previous Google updates, see the SISTRIX update tracking page
- Information from Google on Spam Updates and Spambrain, the AI-based system that is updated during Google Spam Updates.
The last Spam Update was in December 2024 when the impact was relatively large. Details can be found in our analysis here.
SISTRIX Google Update and Feature Update Radar
The daily view on SERP updates can always be viewed in our Google Update Radar which shows the current level of movement relative to the last 90 days. The radar graphics are an indicator of SERPs changes across 1 million SERPs every day. Graphs for UK and US are shown below:
Data and Analysis
The radar graphic above shows the low level of change seen across SERPs during the period of the rollout, compared to the large impact that the June Core update had.
Some examples of falling domains with classic ‘spam’ type content have been found but the levels of these changes are generally under the normal noise of daily SERP movements. There are no noticeable changes in the Top 100 that are not either domain migrations, hacked sites or other issues.
The three examples from the UK dataset above show major percentage losses. The losses did not all start on the same day.
It is not possible to create an extensive list of losing domains that were affected during the spam update because most of the domains that have been analysed so far are either domains that were hacked or domains that are migrating – they are below the normal noise levels.
Selected examples can be found though. This adult site was affected, for example:
goong.com was a website that had 27443 URLs (see below) ranking at one point but the content fell into the Spam Update net and was removed from rankings. This style of modern language and meme dictionary is no longer relevant for Google.
Who’s gaining from these losses?
This update appears to be a penalty-only update so examples of major gains are not expected as the SERPs adjust to the removal of a single result. Given the informational nature of the examples above one could also assume that AIO might have already taken searchers away from clicking on these type of links.
How to check for domain changes during a Google Core Update
The Visibility Index is going to help you. The VI is a transparent, well-defined and trusted KPI that can be used at any level of a domain. For example, you can monitor your informational content directory, or the eCommerce directory in your website. The domain overview tutorial will help you to access this information in the toolbox.
Any Google update take a few days before it takes effect.
The change detection pin, seen in the images above, will show automatically if there have been significant changes near to the date of the pin. You can also set your own pins.
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