August SEO News: Google Spam Update & AI Changes

2025 is continuing to provide plenty of new changes to keep marketing professionals on their toes, and August was no different. As summer comes to an end and our collective attention begins to turn to the end of the year, we’ve once again collected last month’s biggest SEO updates and news stories to help you stay ahead of the competition and take control of your search performance.  

With the festive peak right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to get your website ready for what is likely to be the busiest time of the year for online activity.  

Google’s Latest Spam Update Launches

One of the last major SEO news stories to break in August was also by far the biggest. Google began the rollout of its latest spam update on the 26th August, the 3rd major algorithm update after March and June’s core updates. Unlike core updates, which offer sweeping changes to numerous aspects of Google’s ranking algorithm, spam updates specifically focus on the quality and relevancy of sites. 

This usually involves Google finetuning its algorithm to better detect content which goes against their spam policies. Google defines spam as techniques which intentionally aim to manipulate Google Search’s systems into ranking content highly. These practices include: 

• Cloaking: When a site presents different information to users and search engines to manipulate ranking and clicks. 

• Hacked content: When misleading or manipulating content is placed on a site without the owner’s permission, including redirects and expired domain abuse.  

• Hidden text and keyword stuffing: Google negatively punishes sites which hide text or links from users to manipulate search ranking. This often includes keyword stuffing or the overuse of irrelevant terminology.  

• Link spam: This includes any form of buying, selling, or swapping links to inflate ranking, especially low-quality, or misleading links. 

• Content spam: Misleading functionality, repurposing content from other sites, and user-generated spam are all examples of content spam. As of recently, Google has also begun to consider low-quality, AI-generated content to be spam which, if posted to your site, could potentially incur penalties for your domain. 

Much like the police officer ushering the man out of the café in the Monty Python sketch from which the modern meaning of the phrase ‘spam’ is derived, Google tries to punish any site found to be repeatedly using spam. However, this change in enforcement can often lead to volatile rankings for many sites as Google finetunes the update.  

The last spam update back in December 2024 resulted in severe ranking drops for some sites, regardless of if their content was violating Google’s spam policy. Meanwhile, other sites received a boost to their rankings because of low-quality content no longer ranking above them.  

What does this mean for you?

As with any change to Google’s algorithm, it’s vital that you keep a close eye on your site’s performance over the next few weeks as any significant fluctuations in performance are likely to be due to the spam update. If any of your content has suddenly dropped out of the rankings, you should thoroughly check Google’s policy around spam and ensure the content isn’t breaking any of their rules. However, you should always wait until the update has finished rolling out before taking any drastic measures as any incorrect drops in performance are often rectified by the end of the update. 

 Google AI Mode Launches in 180 New Countries with New Features on the Way

Following on from July’s biggest SEO update, the launch of Google’s AI Mode in the United Kingdom, the feature has now officially gone global, launching in over 180 countries in August. 

Despite this rapid expansion to web browsers all over the world, it’s still only available in the English language. This shows that AI Mode is still very much a work in progress and Google have emphasised this by announcing a couple of new features coming to the platform: 

• Tailored searches: Users will now see personalised information in AI Mode, related to their previous conversations, as well as their searches across Maps and Search.  

• Search together: AI Mode interactions can now be shared as user can send a link inviting others to check out their AI Mode journey, allowing them to pick up where the original user left off and ask their own follow-up questions.  

What Does this Mean for You

The continued expansion of AI Mode, and Google’s commitment to bringing new features to the tab, indicates that the tech giant truly sees this as a major innovation in the world of search. More specifically, Google appear to be all-in on users adopting AI Mode, rather than sticking to traditional search methods.  

AI Mode continues to provide users with links to its sources at the top of its answers, meaning that appearing in AI Mode responses is important for capitalising on any traffic coming from the new feature.  

Is GPT-5 the Future of Search?

Last month, OpenAI launched the latest iteration of their ChatGPT AI platform, GPT-5. Described as being ‘smarter, faster, and more useful’ than previous versions of the large language model ( LLM), OpenAI has claimed that GPT-5 can provide ‘PhD level’ expertise on a variety of topics. This upgrade has reportedly given ChatGPT a boost in terms of its writing and coding abilities, as well as providing more nuanced, complex answers and limiting what OpenAI has described as ‘hallucinations’ where the platform would present false information as the undeniable truth in its eyes.   

OpenAI’s transition to GPT-5 comes as more people are starting to adopt AI tools as part of their daily routine, with 12% of users naming ChatGPT as their preferred method of search, over Google and other traditional search engines.  

Last month, we discussed how ChatGPT uses Google Search results to influence its answers. And our advice around incorporating traffic from AI platforms into your SEO strategy remains the same: creating helpful, user-first content will not only improve your search rankings on Google but will improve your likelihood of appearing in AI searches. 

These recent developments over at OpenAI will likely lead to even more senior leaders believing that AI is the future of content marketing, especially when it comes to SEO content which must be authoritative, knowledge, and tailored to your audience’s needs. While you may believe that using GPT-5 to create content for your site may be more efficient, you should bear in mind that Google is starting to crack down on low-quality, AI-generated content through its spam updates.  

Chat-GPT and other platforms are going to become a marketer’s best friend in the future, but they shouldn’t replace the marketer.  Human input is still essential for creating quality content that’ll help you rank.  

Is a Google Business Profile the Key to Local AI Performance?

Despite the rise in popularity of AI platforms and LLMs as search mechanisms, they’re still reliant on the world’s most dominant search engine to populate their answers. Google Search is still just as vital in a world of AI innovation, so much so that some LLMs have started directly incorporating Google features into their query responses.  

Copilot, the Microsoft-owned AI platform formally known as Bing Chat, has been using Google Business Profiles and Google Maps reviews for its AI results. This is specifically in terms of local search queries from users such as requests for restaurants, activities, or other services close to their location.  

​Not only does Copilot use Google’s data to populate its answers, but it’s also directing leading users to an organisation’s Google Business Profile when a user clicks on the answer in Copilot.  

Local SEO has been an important part of search strategies and having a Google Business Profile has consistently been an important element of targeting high-intent local searches from customers. The inclusion of these profiles in AI search results means it’s now even more important to have up-to-date information on your Google Business Profile. ​ 

There really is no such thing as a quiet month in the world of SEO. That’s why we’re always here to help you get to grips with the newest, updates, tools and developments which are changing how we search. We’ll keep bringing you the biggest SEO news each month to help boost your digital performance and help you understand how to make the most of any traffic surges as we approach the peak season for many online retailers.  

For more tips for maximising your performance over peak, check out our guide covering the top cross channel tips for peak. Interested in boosting your online performance even further? Get in touch with our team at  hello@summitmedia.com.