Digital Marketing News Early-September 2026: Rankings Still Moving, AI Overviews Go Full AI Mode And Search Console Shows Your AI Traffic

The short version of the digital marketing news early-September 2026 round-up is that Google changed the page, changed the reporting, and left the rankings shaking. Here is each item, what it actually means, and whether it needs anything from you.

Google’s August 2026 spam update finished rolling out on 21 August, but the results have not settled. Search Engine Roundtable documented continued volatility from 26 August onwards, with the tracking tools and site owners both reporting big reshuffles in niches that had been quiet for months. Google has not confirmed a new update.

That makes it the fifth unconfirmed shake-up since late July, with the confirmed spam update sitting in the middle of them. Google’s John Mueller also said this week that update announcements are mainly for transparency. If there is something you should actually do, Google publishes it in its documentation first.

• If your rankings moved, check what changed around you first. A competitor climbing looks exactly like you dropping.
• Compare a fortnight against a fortnight in Search Console, not this Tuesday against last Tuesday.
• Nothing in Google’s guidance changed this week. There is no new rule to comply with.
• If you have never bought links or spun content, this was not aimed at you. Keep publishing useful pages.

For some searches Google now loads the full AI Overview straight away, with the Ask anything box open underneath it, instead of a short snippet with a Show more button. Google confirmed it to Search Engine Roundtable on 28 August, saying AI Overviews may dynamically expand for topics where its systems decide that is most useful.

In plain English, the AI answer just got much taller and the ten normal results moved further down the screen. Google says the expansion cancels if you have already started scrolling, and it is only firing on some queries, so it is not every search and not every device.

• Search your own most important terms on a phone and see where your listing actually sits now.
• Pages that answer the question clearly in the first paragraph are the ones getting cited inside the answer. Check yours do.
• Do not panic-buy an AI optimisation package. Google said last week there is no separate trick, and that has not changed.
• Use the new Search Console AI report (next item) to see whether this is affecting you, rather than guessing.

Google has finished rolling out the generative AI performance report and AI controls in Search Console to every website worldwide, as of 31 August. It started as a trickle in June and has been widening since.

The report shows impressions, pages, countries, devices and dates for where your site appeared in AI Overviews, AI Mode and the AI features in Discover. It does not show clicks or the queries. Alongside it is a new toggle that lets you block your content from appearing in, or being used by, those AI features.

• Open Search Console, go to Performance, and look for the new generative AI tab. If it is missing, your site may not have enough data yet.
• Note which pages are being shown. Those are the ones worth keeping accurate and up to date.
• Leave the block toggle alone unless you have a very specific reason. Opting out removes you from the answer, not from the competition.
• Screenshot the numbers now so you have a baseline before the next update.

Google Ads added a new paragraph to its AI Max help documentation, and Search Engine Roundtable spotted the change. When you switch off the broad match campaign setting or move to AI Max, your broad keywords are no longer treated as exact match for prioritisation.

That matters if you migrated and assumed your old keywords would keep their priority. Google’s fix is to add copies of your exact match keywords to the new AI Max campaign. Converting the broad ones to exact instead wipes their historical stats.

• If you have moved a campaign to AI Max, check whether your core keywords exist in it as exact match. If not, add them.
• Add copies rather than converting. Converting loses the history you will want for comparison.
• If you are happy with AI Max’s standard prioritisation, Google says no action is needed. Make that a decision, not an accident.
• Check the search terms report for the last two weeks. If it has widened out, this is probably why.

Google’s Ads Liaison confirmed on 1 September that Google has identified a bug with Local Services Ads and is working on a fix. Advertisers reported LSA accounts being unlinked from their Google Business Profiles over the weekend, plus errors and slowness when trying to log in.

Google says it is unrelated to the ongoing migration of Local Services Ads into Google Ads. That is one bug and one migration landing in the same fortnight, which is why it feels like a mess even though it is two separate things.

• If you run Local Services Ads, log in and check the Business Profile link is still there. If it has gone, contact support and get it relinked.
• Do not re-verify or rebuild anything until Google confirms the fix. You could make the tangle worse.
• Keep an eye on lead volume for the week. A broken link can mean your ad is not showing.
• The missed-call billing change we covered last week still starts on 1 October. That has not moved.