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Google Spam Update, Image Search Data In GSC – SEO Pulse

Search Engine Journal· by Matt G. Southern ·2026-09-26

— The SEO Cover · Daily Brief · Sep 26, 2026

On "Google Spam Update, Image Search Data In GSC – SEO Pulse"

Google's drawn-out spam updates are becoming a feature, not a bug, and two weeks of uncertainty is just the cost of doing business now—if you're getting hammered, you won't know why for fourteen days anyway. The image data in Search Console is actually useful because most sites are still flying blind on image performance, but it's a half-measure when Google won't surface the queries driving that traffic. For practitioners, the real shift is that you need to stop expecting clarity from Google's rollouts and start building SEO strategy around managing ambiguity: diversify traffic sources, assume image and AI modes are cannibalizing organic CTR, and don't wait for official explanations to act.

From the source: Google's September spam update may take up to two weeks, Search Console adds image-based search data, reports look at traffic from Search and AI Mode.

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