· Google
Helpful content guidance updated
Google refreshed its page on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, including who made the content, how and why, and warnings against writing to a word count or faking freshness.
What to do: Show who wrote each page and when it was checked. Don't change dates without changing the content.
Source: Google Search Central
· Google
Guidance on AI-generated content updated
Google's guidance on using generative AI for content says to fact-check what AI produces and focus on content made for people.
What to do: If you use AI to draft, check every fact and add your own experience before publishing.
Source: Google Search Central
· Google
September 2026 spam update
A spam update rolled out over about two weeks, finishing around 7 October.
What to do: If traffic fell in this window, review the spam policies, especially scaled content and site reputation abuse.
Source: Google Search Status Dashboard
· Google
Generative AI performance report for all sites
Search Console's report on impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode reached all websites worldwide. It shows impressions by page, country, date and device, but not clicks.
What to do: Open the report in Search Console and note which of your pages are shown in AI answers.
Source: Search Engine Journal
· Google
August 2026 spam update
A short spam update, finishing within a few days.
What to do: Compare your traffic before and after the dates if it dropped.
Source: Google Search Status Dashboard
· Google
Guide to optimising for AI features updated
Google's guide on AI features in Search says no special files such as llms.txt, special schema or content chunking are needed for its AI features.
What to do: Focus on indexable pages with clear answers rather than AI-only tricks.
Source: Google Search Central
· Google
June 2026 spam update
A short spam update.
What to do: Check traffic around these dates if it changed.
Source: Google Search Status Dashboard
· Google
Generative AI reports announced, opt-out tested in the UK
Google announced Search Console reports for AI features, first for some UK sites, and began testing a control for UK site owners to keep content out of AI Overviews and AI Mode.
What to do: Nothing to do outside the UK yet. Watch for the control reaching your country.
Source: Search Engine Land
· Google
May 2026 core update
A broad core update that ran for about 11 days.
What to do: If rankings moved, Google's advice is to review how helpful and trustworthy your content is, not to rush technical fixes.
Source: Google Search Status Dashboard
· Google
FAQ rich results no longer shown
Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in Search. The documentation was later removed.
What to do: Keep clear question-and-answer sections for readers. Don't expect FAQ markup to add dropdowns to your result.
Source: Google Search Central
· Google
March 2026 core update
A broad core update that ran for about two weeks.
What to do: Compare rankings and traffic before and after the update window.
Source: Google Search Status Dashboard
· Google
March 2026 spam update
A short spam update, just before the March core update.
What to do: If traffic dropped in late March, check both updates.
Source: Google Search Status Dashboard
· Microsoft
AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing Webmaster Tools added an AI Performance report in public preview, showing how often pages are cited in Copilot and other AI answers, and the phrases used.
What to do: Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools and check which pages are cited.
Source: Koozai
State of AI search, once a month
The month's changes from Google and the AI companies, new numbers worth knowing, and one thing to fix on your site. One short email.
Compiled by Praveen Kumar, Vectura Digital. Spot something missing? Email info@vecturadigital.com. See also: AI search statistics.