Welcome to the Pulse: This week’s updates include tips on reading spam update data, understanding how long crawling and recovery might take, exploring how Search Console totals multiple countries, insights on how Google handles fake author profiles, and an overview of how AI crawlers detect sitemaps.
Here’s what matters for you and your work.
Google’s September Spam Update Finished After Nearly 14 Days
Google’s September 2026 spam update finished rolling out on Oct. 8, according to the Google Search Status Dashboard.
Key facts:
The rollout started on Sept. 24, with Google’s ranking update history noting it took about 13 days and 16 hours, close to the “up to two weeks” timeframe Google initially provided. This year’s three previous spam updates were completed in less than three days each. According to rank-tracking platform SEOmonitor, from Sept. 26, industry-wide rank trackers observed sudden ranking changes that people searching Google didn’t see, which it attributes to incomplete and inaccurate data returned by Google to automated search tools.
Why This Matters
Now that the rollout is complete, you have a set window, Sept. 24 to Oct. 8, for comparing Search Console performance before, during, and after the update as more data comes in. According to SEOmonitor, real spam update changes usually stick around across consecutive days and are often visible in Search Console impressions and clicks. So, it’s a good idea to check those before interpreting a late-September drop in your rank tracker as an update effect.
Read our full coverage: Google Completes September 2026 Spam Update After Nearly 14 Days
Gary Illyes Showed Timing Ranges For Crawling, Indexing, And Recovery
Google’s Gary Illyes showed timing ranges for crawling, indexing, site moves, and core update recovery at Search Central Live Deep Dive Europe in Barcelona on Oct. 2.
Key facts:
The figures come from a recap of the session by John Campbell of ROAST, one of the event’s community speakers. His recap lists a site move at one to three months in the typical case and six months to more than a year at the slowest. For core update recovery, it lists about three to six months as typical, and in the slowest cases, six months to a year. However, the recap doesn’t specify the sample size, time period, or what exactly is meant by ‘typical.’
Why This Matters
When a client asks if a site move is still in progress or feels stuck, the ranges in the attendee recap can be a helpful reference, as they provide a way to compare progress, though keep in mind, they’re ranges rather than strict deadlines. If a move is still unresolved at three months, it tends to be at the high end of the usual range listed in the recap.
Read our full coverage: Google Shows How Long Crawling, Indexing & Recovery Can Take
Search Console Can Now Combine Traffic From Multiple Countries
Google has updated the filters in Search Console’s Performance report, making it easier to see combined Google Search traffic across multiple countries at once.
Key facts:
Google Search Central announced the change on LinkedIn on Oct. 6. Search Console’s help page now says you can select multiple countries or devices to see their combined data. Its Compare option still shows two devices, countries, Search types, or Search appearances side by side, and the page says you can’t filter by multiple Search appearances.
Why This Matters
Teams that report on a group of markets can pull one combined Search figure for the group in the Performance report instead of comparing countries two at a time.
Read our full coverage: Google Search Console Lets You Filter By Multiple Countries
Google’s People-First Guidance Now Warns Against Fake Author Profiles
Google’s guidance on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content now warns against fabricated creator profiles.
Key facts:
The new paragraph follows the page’s advice to add accurate authorship information, such as bylines. It names AI-generated headshots, made-up names, and false credentials when they’re used to make content appear as if it was written by human experts, and says any form of deception is “a signal of a low-quality page.” Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines already list deliberately misleading information about a site’s content creators as a type of deception.
Why This Matters
Bylines and author pages are where to check that a name, photo, or credential isn’t creating a false impression of human expertise, which Google’s guidance for site owners now calls deception.
Read our full coverage: Google Adds Fake Author Warning To Helpful Content Guidance
Mueller On AI Crawlers, Sitemaps, And “Couldn’t Fetch” Errors
AI training crawlers usually don’t give sites a way to submit a sitemap, Google’s John Mueller said in the Oct. 1 episode of Google’s Search Off the Record podcast with Martin Splitt.
Key facts:
He suggested a default name like sitemap.xml or an RSS feed for sites that want those crawlers to find their content, and said he has seen AI crawlers access his sitemap and RSS files in his own server logs. For valid sitemaps that show “Couldn’t fetch,” he gave two causes, host load and crawl demand, which he said is very often based on a site’s perceived quality. Search Console’s Sitemaps report help page also lists low crawl demand among the reasons a sitemap can’t be fetched.
Why This Matters
By Mueller’s account, a sitemap with an unusual name, no robots.txt entry, and a direct submission to Google is harder for other systems to find. AI training crawlers usually have no console to submit it to. For a valid sitemap stuck on “Couldn’t fetch,” both causes he described sit outside the file itself.
Read our full coverage: Google’s Mueller Says AI Crawlers Access Sitemaps & RSS In His Logs and Google Explains The “Couldn’t Fetch” Sitemap Errors
Theme Of The Week: Reading Past The Label
Each story this week highlights how labels or numbers can say less than they appear to. For example, a drop in rank tracker results in late September might reflect the way Google returned results to automated searches, according to SEOmonitor. The word “Typical” in the timing ranges is the recap’s label, without a specific definition, and “Couldn’t fetch” might refer to a sitemap that Google skipped or didn’t get a chance to fetch, rather than indicating a broken file, Mueller explained. Additionally, a Search Console country figure can now represent a combined total for several markets. Even a byline is a type of label, and Google’s current guidance considers a fabricated one to be deceptive if it’s used to make content appear as if written by human experts. This means that before including such labels in a client report, you should check what lies behind them.
Top Stories Of The Week:
- Google Completes September 2026 Spam Update After Nearly 14 Days
- Google Shows How Long Crawling, Indexing & Recovery Can Take
- Google Search Console Lets You Filter By Multiple Countries
- Google Adds Fake Author Warning To Helpful Content Guidance
- Google’s Mueller Says AI Crawlers Access Sitemaps & RSS In His Logs
- Google Explains The “Couldn’t Fetch” Sitemap Errors
More Resources:
- What To Expect From Google’s Next Search Ranking Update
- Google Is Fighting SERP Tracking. AI Agents May Make It Worse
- Google Says Canonical Re-Evaluation Can Take Up to Two Weeks
Featured Image: Cast Of Thousands/Shutterstock
