Google’s September SEO developments delivered two clear messages for publishers: monitor volatility carefully during spam-update rollouts, and pay closer attention to image-led discovery. The September 2026 spam update began rolling out globally on September 24, while Google Search Console started introducing reporting for image-based, multimodal searches such as Google Lens, Circle to Search, image uploads, and Chrome’s “Search this image” feature.
The spam-update side of the story
Google began the September 2026 spam update at 9:15 a.m. PDT on September 24. It applies globally and across all languages, with a rollout window of up to two weeks.
Google did not disclose the precise spam tactic, policy area, or site category being targeted. That means site owners should avoid jumping to conclusions based on a single day of ranking movement.
Instead, document the rollout period, review Search Console data by page and query group, and look for patterns: Did traffic losses begin during the rollout window? Are affected URLs thin, duplicated, heavily templated, or poorly maintained? Are pages created at high volume with minimal unique value? Did visibility fall mainly on commercial landing pages, informational guides, or image-heavy pages? Are there indexation, canonical, rendering, or technical problems that may explain the drop? Did competitors gain at the same time, and do their pages offer stronger first-hand value?
Google’s own guidance for sites affected by spam updates is to review the spam policies. Spam-policy violations can lead to reduced visibility or removal from search results, and recovery may take time even after improvements are made.
What the new multimodal reporting reveals
Google Search Console’s new filter is designed to show performance from image-based searches. The data covers Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, images uploaded into Google Search, and Chrome’s right-click “Search this image” feature.
The filter appears under the existing Web search type rather than as a separate search type. It is rolling out globally, helping site owners identify the pages users reach after searching with images.
This is important because people increasingly begin searches with a visual prompt rather than a text query. They may photograph a product, screenshot an interface, use a social image, circle an item on their phone, or upload a picture of something they want to identify or buy.
For affiliate sites, image-led discovery is especially relevant to casino game screenshots and slot-machine imagery, sportsbook app interfaces, betting-slip explainers, payment-method guides, mobile app review pages, operator logo comparisons, game-provider pages, promotional banners and bonus explainers, and “How to use” visual tutorials.
The reporting limitation: no query data
Google says multimodal reports do not include query data because these searches are mostly image-based rather than text-based. That means you will not see the exact image or visual search used by the searcher.
Instead, analyse the report at a page level. Identify the URLs that receive multimodal clicks and ask: What visual assets appear on those pages? Are the images original, high-quality, and accurately labelled? Does the page explain what is shown in the image? Is the surrounding content helpful after a visual search? Does the page load quickly and work well on mobile? Are images properly sized, compressed, and accessible? Do captions, headings, and alt text give contextual relevance without keyword stuffing?
Why image SEO now deserves more attention
Image visibility has always mattered, but multimodal search makes visual assets more central to the search journey. A user who searches an image of a slot, betting interface, payment logo, or sports jersey is likely looking for fast, practical information.
Your image strategy should therefore move beyond stock images and decorative banners. Create visual assets that answer a query or support a decision: annotated betting-app walkthroughs, original screenshots showing how a feature works, comparison graphics for payment methods, clear casino-bonus term diagrams, mobile-first guides to deposits, verification, and withdrawals, branded infographic-style explainers for odds formats, and screenshots that show menu paths, buttons, and steps accurately.
Google supports image metadata that can help Google Images show information such as creator, credit, and usage details. That is not a substitute for strong image content, but it is part of a better-managed visual publishing process.
Technical issues also remain important
The SEO Pulse report highlighted a de-indexing case in which pages appeared to be associated with an unrelated casino URL through canonical signals after an error-page issue. Google’s John Mueller recommended testing pages and catching broken experiences before Googlebot encounters them.
For affiliate publishers, this is a strong reminder to automate monitoring for broken canonical tags, cross-domain canonical errors, pages returning soft 404s or JavaScript error pages, incorrect status codes, redirect loops, noindex changes after plugin or template updates, CDN, cache, and bot-rendering problems, and newly deployed page templates without crawl testing.
A technically broken review page, even one with strong content, may not appear in normal search results if Google cannot process it correctly.
Key takeaway
The spam update should encourage publishers to improve quality controls, not chase theories about a hidden target. At the same time, Search Console’s multimodal reporting is a reason to treat images as real search-entry points. Build original visual assets, connect them to useful landing pages, and monitor which pages benefit from image-based discovery.
Related Resources
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Sources
- Search Engine Journal — Google Spam Update, Image Search Data in GSC
- Search Engine Journal — Google rolls out September 2026 spam update globally
- Google Search Central — Structured data supported in Google Search, including image metadata
- Google Search Central — Introduction to structured data and validation
- Google Search Central — Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
