The Google August 2026 spam update is now done rolling out. It started on Tuesday, August 18, 2026 at around 12:30 pm ET and completed on August 21, 2026 at around 4:50 am. Despite some people feeling the update started soon, Google's John Mueller said it did not. Popular Categories Algorithm Updates The Pulse of the search community Latest Articles Daily Search Forum Recap: August 21, 2026 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today... Google Search Console Crawl Stats Missing Two Days Of Data The crawl stats report within Google Search Console has a data gap again. This time the crawl stats report is missing August 15 and 16th crawl data. Normally, Google can fix the data but Google has not yet fixed it. Search Video Recaps Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Unleashed The August 2026 Spam Update, Gemini 3.7 Powers AI Mode, Google and Microsoft Ads News & More Google has released its third spam update of the 2026 year, the August 2026 spam update this week and finished rolling out Friday morning at 4:50am. Google Search’s AI Mode is now being powered sometimes by... Google Preferred Source Button Improved For Publishers Google has updated the Preferred Sources button that publishers have on their websites to make it so that the user is taken right back to the page they were originally on. There is new embed code that handles this process to make it easier for users to go back to where they were and stay on your website. Google Search Volatility Microsoft Advertising Max CPC Won't Be Available For New Campaigns On Oct 1

Microsoft Advertising sent out emails yesterday announcing changes coming to Max CPC bidding. Microsoft wrote, "Max CPC will no longer be available when creating new non-portfolio campaigns" after October 1, 2026. Google Ads & AI Max New Experimentation & Planning Features Google announced it is rolling out new experimentation and planning capabilities in Google Ads and AI Max. There are new A/B test capabilities, brand and location parameters options and new Performance Planner predictions. Google Local Service Ads Pre-Badge Ads & Expansion Of Verticals Google has made some big updates to Local Service Ads. Even though LSAs are transitioning to Google Ads, Google is clearly still investing in the LSA product. Google added something called pre-badge ads, massively expanded the verticals and the verified ads badge updated its exclusions. JSON-LD Extraction For Googlebot Now Does One Pass Of HTML Unescaping Google Discover Feed Can Be Tailored By Words Google Tag & Google Tag Manager Updated Daily Search Forum Recap: August 20, 2026 Why Google Announces Some Search Updates But Not All Google Ads Can Find Sitelinks For You Google Ads Enhanced Matching In Customer Match Picture of the Day Submit a Thread Comments Policy The content at the Search Engine Roundtable are the sole opinion of the authors and in no way reflect views of RustyBrick ®, Inc Copyright © 1994-2026 RustyBrick ® , Inc. Web Development All Rights Reserved. This work by Search Engine Roundtable is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Creative Commons License and YouTube videos under YouTube's ToS .