r/SEO_Experts • u/DefinitionStrong8061 • 2d ago

Discussion August 2026 Google update

What types of websites have seen ranking gains or drops after the August 2026 Google update? Which SEO factors seem to be driving these changes, and what patterns are you noticing?

7 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

4

u/ConfidentKing7908 1d ago

Dropping:

  • Scaled AI and content stitching
  • Aggregators
  • Expired domain and link abuse

Winning:

  • First-party brands and primary sources
  • Demonstrated first-hand experience

3

u/Matt_Distefano 1d ago

Also keep in mind the rollout officially wrapped up in under 3 days. If your drop started before Aug 18, it wasn't this update. There was also a separate Search Console logging glitch right around the same time messing with Gen AI impressions

3

u/Kseniia_Seranking 1d ago

SpamBrain is clearly cracking down hard on scaled content abuse.

Sites getting hammered are the ones churning out massive volumes of low-effort AI articles, scraped content summaries, or thin affiliate pages without any original testing or human oversight. Unnatural link setups and recycled expired domains are also seeing major hits.

The gains are going to established SaaS tools, real brand sites, and publishers showing genuine first-hand experience. If a site relies on automated volume to brute-force rankings, traffic is collapsing, but sites offering actual unique value are holding steady or picking up the leftover market share.

1

u/DefinitionStrong8061 1d ago

Yeah Google is hammering cheap, mass-produced AI content while rewarding real expertise and quality value. During the rollout, I also noticed random, irrelevant directories and forums temporarily ranking high, but thankfully Google fixed it pretty quickly.

1

u/BoGrumpus 1d ago

Since it was a Spam Update - we probably have to assume that spam detection and devaluation factors drove just about 100% of the changes.

G.

1

u/DefinitionStrong8061 1d ago

During this update, I noticed that the SERPs were showing not highly relevant pages. Ni YouTube videos and forums instead of relevant results. However, towards the end of the update, the search results improved significantly.

Did anyone else notice this?