Google says scaled, low-effort pages are the spam risk

Google said at Search Central Live in Europe that it runs more spam updates because there is so much more new content. It now uses AI to help catch more spam. Search Engine Roundtable covered the recap on Oct 5, 2026. Gary Illyes warned that scaled content is now more of a problem than link spam, per John Campbell.

Google is using AI to catch AI spam.

Barry Schwartz wrote it up on Search Engine Roundtable on Oct 5, 2026. He quoted John Campbell's recap of Google's three-day Search Central Live Deep Dive in Europe. Google said there have been more spam updates in 2026 because there is so much more new content than before. The team now uses AI to help catch more of it. AI slop is rising, and more poor content is showing up in Discover. New spam filters are built from user feedback. Gary Illyes repeated that Google filters out 40 billion spam pages a day. SER notes that number is not new.

Campbell kept his summary short. Expect more spam updates and new spam thresholds. Scaled, low-effort content is the risk.

Each page gets judged on its own

The same recap gave three reasons Google keeps changing how it judges quality. One matters a lot for a small business site. Core updates judge content page by page, not the whole domain. That is why some pages on a site go up while others go down. The spam examples on the list include doorway pages and scraped content.

So a weak page does not hide behind a good homepage. Town pages that differ by the town name and nothing else get judged one at a time.

You are running on defaults you never chose. A lot of pages get made because a tool or a template made them easy. Nobody asked the question the page answers. When I look at a page, I ask one thing. Did a customer need this, or was it just easy to make?

What I would check

Read each service page and town page out loud. If two pages say the same thing with a different town name, merge them or write down the real difference. A real difference is something a customer cares about, like the jobs done in that area or how to get in touch. If nobody would miss a page, cut it.

Get Seen at Gman Creations builds website and Google presence foundations. That covers clear pages that work on a phone, useful service pages, readable structure, and clear business facts for AI-assisted search. We don't invent proof, and we don't promise rankings or AI placement. You get a written scope and quote after we talk. Sending the brief isn't a purchase.

What to do next

If your site has pages that exist just because they were easy to make, start on Get Seen. For a free read of the homepage basics search and AI tools can parse, see SignalGrade. If keeping pages current is a chore with no owner, see Offload. If your Google details are the gap instead, the post on the four-day clock covers one of them. Book a discovery when you want a human look: cal.com/shohgman/discovery.

More spam updates are coming, and every page on the site gets judged on its own.

FAQ

Why is Google running more spam updates in 2026?

Search Engine Roundtable, citing John Campbell's recap of Search Central Live, says Google pointed to far more new content than before. The team now uses AI to help catch more spam.

What did Google warn about scaled content?

Per Campbell's recap, Gary Illyes warned that scaled content is now more of a problem than link spam. Campbell's summary was to expect more spam updates and new spam thresholds.

Does Google judge a whole site or single pages?

The recap says core updates target content at page level, not domain level. That is why some pages on a site go up while others go down.