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THE WEEKLY ROUNDUP
9 OCTOBER 2026 · ISSUE 02

Radu Tyrsina

One thing to check
before the weekend.

Google’s spam update finished yesterday, after almost two weeks. If your traffic moved since late September, our top story shows you where to look. But first, our free webinar now has a date. Got a question or a tip? Just hit reply. It comes straight to me.

Radu Tyrsina

Owner & Publisher, Search Engine Watch

FREE ONLINE WEBINAR

Answer Engine Strategies

OCT

27

Tuesday, 11 a.m. ET

8 a.m. PT · 3 p.m. London · 4 p.m. Berlin

Three experts show what actually gets a brand into AI answers. Real examples, a live demo and time for your questions. No sales pitches.

Ann Smarty

Smarty Marketing

Kevin Lee

Didit

Ivan Palii

B2B Gaps

Save my free spot →

Free to attend. Sign up once and we’ll email you the details.

Google’s spam update is finally done. Now check your traffic

TOP STORY

Google’s spam update is finally done. Now check your traffic

The September spam update finished on October 8, almost two weeks after it started; past spam updates took about two days. If your rankings moved, compare Search Console before and after September 24 and look hardest at Sept 25–27, Sept 30 and Oct 4–6.

Read the full story →

FEATURED GUIDES

What are AI citations? Who gets the credit when AI answers?

What are AI citations? Who gets the credit when AI answers?

A plain-English guide to the small source links in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI answers, and why they are now a real route to new readers. Good for anyone on your team who’s still catching up. Read More

What is Q5 marketing? How to plan the week after Christmas

What is Q5 marketing? How to plan the week after Christmas

Shopping doesn’t stop on December 25. How to plan for the cheap-ad, high-intent week between Christmas and New Year, before everyone else does. Read More

Best AI SEO WordPress plugins for the content you already have

Best AI SEO WordPress plugins for the content you already have

7 picks for a publishing site’s less glamorous work: refreshing metadata, finding missing internal links and dealing with the image library. Read More

ALSO THIS WEEK

Google is paying publishers for AI answers, with some decidedly small cheques

Google is paying publishers for AI answers, with some decidedly small cheques

A pilot with about 100 publishers pays for content used in AI Overviews, AI Mode and Gemini. For some smaller sites it’s about 0.1% of ad revenue, and there’s no public way to join yet. Read More

Ad giant says Apple’s Safari is blocking its ads

Ad giant says Apple’s Safari is blocking its ads

The Trade Desk says Safari 27 on iOS 27 blocks a domain it uses to deliver ads, and Apple is looking into it. If your programmatic revenue dipped, check Safari 27 traffic on its own before blaming weak demand. Read More

ChatGPT is getting image ads

ChatGPT is getting image ads

From late October, a first group of US advertisers can show labelled image ads while ChatGPT creates pictures for users. OpenAI is also adding conversion tracking and brand-safety checks, the measurement advertisers have been asking for. Read More

Google now tells you how many people chose your site as a preferred source

Google now tells you how many people chose your site as a preferred source

Site owners are getting emails from Google with their total “preferred source” selections, plus tips to add the button to their pages. It’s your first number for how many readers asked Google to show you more often. Read More

Google appears to reduce AI answers in People Also Ask

Google appears to reduce AI answers in People Also Ask

A recent report said nearly all People Also Ask answers were AI-written. Checking several searches this week, we couldn’t find a single one, so Google may have scaled the test back. Read More

QUICK HITS

Google Search Console updates its country filter

You can now see combined Search traffic across several countries and devices in one report.

Google AI Mode adds website panels for brand searches

Brand searches now show your title, description and sitelinks before the AI answer, which could lift clicks.

Microsoft locks Copilot behind sign-in in Edge

Edge now asks unsigned users to sign in before they can use Copilot.

Poland accuses Google of making publishers negotiate blind over news payments

The competition case covers content used in Search, News and Discover, with fines of up to 10% of turnover.

That’s the week. Know someone who’d find this useful? Forward it on.

Radu and the Search Engine Watch team

FOLLOW US

People. Strategies. Real impact.

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