[Digital](https://sustainablemarketing.com.au/blog/digital) [Marketing](https://sustainablemarketing.com.au/blog/marketing) # AI Content and Google's Spam Update: What It Actually Targets Posted 31 Aug 2026 by Maria Anderson ## AI Content and Google's Spam Update: What It Actually Targets If you use AI to help write content for your business, you've probably seen the headlines about Google's latest spam update and wondered if you're next. It's a fair question. Google's spam updates roll out several times a year, and the language around this one, AI generated content, mass production, spam networks, sounds alarming if you're one of the many business owners who dictate a blog brief to Claude or ChatGPT. The direct answer is no. Not if what you're publishing is genuinely useful, well briefed and adds real value for the person reading it. ## What does Google's spam update actually target? On 25 August 2026, Search Engine Journal reported that Google's third spam update of the year had specifically targeted AI generated content created to manipulate search rankings (Source: [Search Engine Journal, 25 August 2026](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/reports-indicate-googles-spam-update-focused-on-seo-ai-content/586978/)). The distinction matters. Content written with AI is not the same as content written for the sole purpose of gaming search results. Google backed this up with a research paper describing a system called the Scalable Cluster Termination System, or S-CTS (Source: [Search Engine Journal, 19 June 2026](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-generated-ai-detected/579987/)). Rather than judging one article on its own, S-CTS looks for what it calls Generation Clusters, groups of pages published through the same automated pipeline, at volume, with the same thin structure repeated across hundreds of pages. When it finds a cluster built purely to game rankings, it terminates the whole network. That is a very different target to a business owner who sits down, briefs Claude properly and publishes two or three well considered articles a month. One is mass production for manipulation. The other is a business using a tool to communicate more efficiently. Google has been clear it is the first one it is after, not the second. ## How to brief AI so it doesn't sound generic The businesses most likely to be caught up in an update like this are the ones producing hundreds of near identical pages with almost no original thought in them. The way to stay well clear of that is simple. Give AI a proper brief. At Sustainable Marketing Services, we brief AI the same way we would brief a junior team member on their first week. We give it the role we want it to play, the task, who the content is for, what our business does, what outcome we're after and any relevant background, our brand positioning, key messages, brand voice, past work and evidence. Then we ask it what else it needs to know before it starts. Often it asks a good question we hadn't considered. From there, it's a conversation, not a single prompt. We tell it what's wrong, add examples, correct assumptions and refine the draft together. Many of us dictate the initial brief using Wispr Flow rather than typing it, because speaking it out loud tends to surface more nuance, context and genuine opinion than a typed prompt usually does. The result is content built from real context, not generic internet text. That's the difference between using AI to churn out fast, thoughtless AI slop, and using AI to help you write something genuinely useful. ## Why E-E-A-T matters more than ever Google has long assessed content against E-E-A-T, Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (Source: [Google Search Central, December 2022](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/12/google-raters-guidelines-e-e-a-t)). It isn't a ranking algorithm on its own, but it describes the qualities Google's quality raters look for, and those same qualities separate useful content from filler, regardless of which tool wrote the first draft. In practice, that means content written by someone who has genuinely done the work, backed by a clear author bio, supported by evidence and sources, and published consistently rather than in one enormous batch. A couple of well considered posts a month, with a real name attached and a track record behind it, will always read as more trustworthy than five hundred anonymous pages published in a week. ## Is chasing AI search visibility the right goal? A lot of the anxiety behind this update comes from a second, related fear, that traditional SEO traffic is falling and AI search is where the real audience has gone. That's true and not true at the same time. Pew Research has found that click through rates drop from around 15 percent to 8 percent when an AI summary appears above the search results. [(Source: Pew Research, July 2025)](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/) But that shift affects some types of searches far more than others. Informational questions lose clicks to AI summaries. Local searches, like someone looking for a tradesperson nearby, are largely unaffected. We've covered this in more detail in [SEO in the Age of AI](https://sustainablemarketing.com.au/blog/seo-in-the-age-of-ai-what-does-it-mean-for-your-business), including why good SEO and good AI search visibility support each other rather than compete. ## Most businesses are already doing this If it feels like AI written content is suddenly everywhere, that's because it is. Ahrefs analysed 900,000 newly created web pages in April 2025 and found that 74.2 percent contained some AI generated content, though only 2.5 percent were entirely AI written with no human input [(Source: Ahrefs, April 2025)](https://ahrefs.com/blog/what-percentage-of-new-content-is-ai-generated). Separately, 87 percent of content marketers surveyed said they use AI to help create content. In other words, you are not the outlier for using AI. The businesses that stand out are the ones using it to add genuine value, not the ones avoiding it altogether. We've built this thinking into our own AI systems at Sustainable Marketing Services, informed by our ongoing involvement in the [AI Society](https://aisociety.socialmediaexaminer.com/?smesite=aisociety-site-navbar), the [AI Her Way program](https://aiherway.com.au) and the [AI Growth Academy Accelerator](https://aigrowthacademy.com.au), and by the specialist AI assistants we've developed internally to keep our own advice evidence based and aligned with our strategy. None of this works without a foundation to brief AI from. If your [brand positioning](https://sustainablemarketing.com.au/services/branding-services), key messages and [marketing plan](https://sustainablemarketing.com.au/services/marketing-growth-plan-brisbane) are only in your head, AI has to guess, and guessing is exactly what produces generic content. We've put together a practical one page guide, [Get Better Results From AI](/assets/files/Get-Better-Results-from-AI-guide.pdf), covering how to brief AI properly and what marketing foundations it needs to work from. If you'd like a second set of eyes on whether yours are strong enough, [book a Marketing Foundations Audit](https://sustainablemarketing.com.au/contact) and we'll identify the gaps together. Get Better Results from AI guide Page 1 Get Better Results from AI guide Page 2 ## **Frequently asked questions** No, not on its own. Google's spam updates target mass produced, low value content created to manipulate rankings. Well briefed, genuinely useful AI assisted content is not the target. Networks of automatically published pages built at volume for the sole purpose of ranking, identified through a system called S-CTS that looks for shared publishing patterns across many pages, not the quality of any single article. Give it a clear role, task, audience, business context, outcome and relevant background, then work through it together rather than accepting the first draft. Real insight and evidence make the biggest difference. E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. It's how Google's quality raters assess whether content is genuinely useful, and it matters more as the volume of AI assisted content grows. Yes. Most content marketers already do. The businesses at risk are the ones using AI to churn out fast, thoughtless AI slop, not the ones using it well. ## Not sure if your marketing foundations are ready for the way search is changing? Find out where to focus first. The free 2-minute Marketing Foundations Scorecard assesses your marketing across Strategy, Leadership, Execution and Optimisation and helps you identify where attention is needed. Get Your Score [Get Your Score here](https://maria-rvua1o3g.scoreapp.com/) About the Author [**Maria Anderson**](https://sustainablemarketing.com.au/maria-anderson-brisbane-marketing-consultant) is the Founder and Managing Director of Sustainable Marketing Services, a multi-award-winning Brisbane marketing agency known for integrating brand, marketing, digital, PR and social to deliver measurable, sustainable growth. A data-driven strategist with over 25 years' experience, Maria is a Certified Practising Marketer and Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute, with a Bachelor of Business (Marketing and Public Relations) and Diplomas in Sustainability and Financial Services.