In 2025, Google rolled out a series of significant algorithmic and documentation changes that impact how websites should manage SEO, structured data, and spam practices. In this blog post, we’ll walk through the key updates—SpamBrain’s August 2025 spam update, Google’s evolving structured-data guidelines (Carousel, paywalls, deprecated schemas), and best practices for URLs and image SEO. Finally, we’ll provide a clear roadmap and a FAQs section to help you apply these changes effectively to your site.

1- Google’s August 2025 Spam Update – What You Need to Know

What Did Google Do?

• • • The Spam Update officially ran from August 26 to September 22, 2025, and is now confirmed complete.
    • It was a global rollout affecting all languages.
    • This update is penalty-focused—its goal was to demote or remove spammy pages, not to boost new winners.
    • The system it enhances is SpamBrain, Google’s AI-based spam detection.
    • Early data suggests that the effects have been muted and limited to obviously non-compliant pages, rather than broad re-ranking.

Why It Matters

• • • Even sites that were not intentionally doing “black-hat SEO” might be nudged downward if they had borderline spammy elements (thin content, hidden links, weak affiliate pages).
    • Removing or improving violations doesn’t guarantee instant recovery—the system needs time to relearn compliance.
    • If your traffic dipped during the rollout, this update should be one of your first suspects.

What to Do if You Were Affected

1. Review Google’s Spam Policies (cloaking, link spam, hidden text, scraped content, etc.).
2. Audit your site for risky content and signals.
3. Clean up or remove problematic pages.
4. Be patient—Google needs time to reassess.
5. Don’t expect a surge from your fixes; the update is enforcement-first, not reward-first.
6. Ensure to follow E-E-A-T and follow all Google guides for how to write a Content and AI-generated content Guide

2- Evolving Structured Data & Documentation Updates (June–September 2025)

Google has continually refined how it supports structured data and how it documents best practices. Below are key changes and how they impact your site.

June 2025

• • • June 12: Google added banners indicating phase-out for several structured data types: book actions, course info, estimated salary, Claim Review, learning video, special announcement, vehicle listing.
    • June 18: The URL structure documentation was reorganized to improve readability (docs-only change).
    • June 17: Expanded documentation for loyalty program structured data, clarifying available geographies (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, UK, USA).
    • June 16: Google updated that AI Mode traffic is now included in Search Console totals.
    • June 5: Adjusted guidelines for Event and Recipe schemas (e.g. events must be physically bookable, proper use of image property).
    • June 4: Revamped SafeSearch documentation and emphasized practices for handling explicit content and video fetchability.

July 2025

• • • July 11: Clarified how merchant return policies and loyalty program markup should sit under Organisation schema; specified that loyalty benefits (shipping, points) are not yet supported by Google.
    • July 1: Updated the Google Read Aloud user agent to better handle newer browser versions.

August 2025

• • • August 28: Added guidance on JavaScript-based paywalls, helping site owners structure code so Google can understand which content is paywalled versus free.

September 2025

• • • September 9: Google removed documentation support for the structured data types that had been deprecated (e.g. course info, estimated salary, vehicle listing), indicating they are no longer used in search.

What It All Means for Your Site

• • • Drop use of deprecated schemas—they are no longer supported in results.
    • If your site offers paywalled content via JS, rework code to follow Google’s guidelines so content is interpreted properly.
    • Use the proper structure (e.g. Organisation schema) for merchant return policies and loyalty programs.
    • Ensure your Event, Recipe, Product, Image, etc. schemas follow the updated rules so you maintain eligibility for rich results.
    • Expect a period of adjustment—Google’s systems may take time to adapt to structural changes.

3- URL Structure Best Practices for SEO (per Google)

To give Google Search the best chance to crawl and index your site optimally, your URL structure must follow good principles:

Core Requirements

• • • Comply with IETF STD 66; percent-encode reserved characters.
    • Don’t use URL fragments (#) to change content—use the History API for dynamic changes.
    • Use the conventional key=value & parameter syntax, not odd separators like brackets or colons.

Human-Friendly Structure

• • • Use descriptive words, not random IDs.
    • Use hyphens (-) to separate words, not underscores (_).
    • Use percent encoding for non-ASCII characters.
    • URLs are case-sensitive—stick to lowercase to avoid duplicates.
    • For multi-regional sites, use country subdirectories or ccTLDs in a predictable way.

Avoid Common Pitfalls

• • • Faceted navigation with combinatorial filters can create huge URL bloat—limit depth or use canonical tags.
    • Session IDs, referral parameters, sorting/query parameters: these should be minimised or blocked via robots.txt.
    • Infinite calendar or archive links: if they autoscale, add nofollow or block them.
    • Broken relative links: prefer root-relative paths to avoid generating bogus paths.

Remediation Tips

• • • Use robots.txt to block URLs that are low value or dangerous to crawl.
    • For faceted navigation, use canonical tags or parameter handling in Search Console.
    • Monitor crawl logs and Search Console to detect duplication or crawl waste.

4- Image SEO: Best Practices That Google Recommends

Images are key drivers for user engagement (especially in product, travel, and food niches). Google’s official guidelines help you make images more discoverable and indexable.

Help Google Find & Index Your Images

• • • Use the <img> HTML element; don’t rely on CSS background images.
    • Provide an image sitemap listing images (even on external domains, like a CDN).
    • Use responsive images with srcset or <picture> elements, but always include a fallback src.

Use Supported Formats & Optimise Speed

• • • Supported formats: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, SVG, AVIF.
    • Filename extension should match the actual format.
    • Compress images and run performance audits (e.g. PageSpeed Insights).

Context & Metadata Matter

• • • The landing page’s title, snippet, and content influence how your images are ranked in Google Images.
    • Use Structured Data to qualify images for rich results and badges (e.g. Product, Recipe).
    • Give images descriptive filenames (e.g. black-kitten-playing.jpg, not IMG_123.jpg).
    • Write alt text to concisely, accurately describe the image—avoid keyword stuffing.
    • Place images near relevant text so Google understands context.
    • Use a consistent URL for the same image; don’t create duplicates across pages with different URLs.

If You Want to Opt Out or Restrict

• • • You can prevent full-sized image display in Google Images via HTTP headers touching the referrer.
    • You can also remove the image from the results entirely if desired.
    • Make sure Google understands your content’s nature for SafeSearch filtering.

5- How to Connect All These Updates into a Recovery & Growth Plan

Here’s a recommended workflow you or your SEO team can use to bring your site up to date:

1. Audit for Spam Violations

   • • Run a comprehensive check of your site against Google’s spam policies (hidden text, link schemes, thin content, duplication).
     • Flag pages with suspect content for cleanup or removal.

2. Structured Data Cleanup & Update

   • • Remove deprecated schemas.
     • Refactor paywall, loyalty, and return policy schemas per new guidelines.
     • Validate all major pages (Product, Article, Recipe, Event) in the Rich Results Test.

3. URL Structure & Crawl Efficiency

   • • Revise faceted URLs, session IDs, or filtering parameters that create an explosion of variants.
     • Use robots.txt / canonical tags as needed.
     • Monitor crawl logs: look for duplicate or soft-error URLs.

4. Image SEO Overhaul

   • • Retag your images: descriptive filenames, alt text, context near relevant content.
     • Implement image sitemaps and responsive image techniques.
     • Evaluate slow-loading media for further optimisation.

5. Monitoring & Patience

   • • After making changes, give Google time to re-crawl and reassess (could take weeks to months).
     • Watch Search Console for trends in impressions, clicks, and errors.
     • Do not overreact—avoid sweeping changes immediately; focus on quality improvement.

6- Google Search Console Impression Reporting Changes

What Happened

In late 2025, Google confirmed a change in how Search Console counts impressions in Search performance reports.
Previously, every time a page or result appeared anywhere on a Search results page—even if it was far below the fold or within expandable elements—it was recorded as an impression.

Now, Google only counts an impression when the user actually had a visible opportunity to see the result, meaning:

• • • Results hidden behind tabs, carousels, or accordions may no longer count as impressions until they’re visible.
    • For features like “People Also Ask,” “Image Packs,” and “Discover-style cards,” impressions are only counted when those blocks are expanded or actually displayed on-screen.

This change aims to make the impression data more accurate and user-centric, reflecting real visibility, not just technical appearance in HTML.

The Actual Impact

• • • You may see a drop in total impressions in Search Console reports, even if your traffic and rankings remain stable.
    • CTR (Click-Through Rate) may appear higher, as impressions are now filtered to represent only visible results.
    • Keyword and page performance graphs might show declines that are not related to ranking drops.
    • Comparing data with older months should be done carefully, as the tracking methodology has changed.

In short, the change doesn’t mean your site is performing worse — it just means Google is measuring visibility more accurately.

What You Should Do

1. Reinterpret your data wisely.
   When analysing trends, focus on clicks and average position more than impressions.
2. Use the new impression model to evaluate real visibility.
   Adjust reports and client KPIs to focus on engagement, not raw reach.
3. Compare performance post-update to new baselines only.
   Avoid comparing to periods before this change when impressions were overcounted.
4. Communicate clearly with clients or teams.
   Explain that lower impressions no longer equal weaker performance—just a refined measurement.

Finally

2025 is proving to be a year of stricter enforcement and evolving structural standards from Google. The steps above—from cleaning up spam signals to updating structured data and image SEO—are not optional if you want to remain sustainable in search results.

The path forward is:

• • • Be compliant with spam policies
    • Use supported, well-structured schemas
    • Have clean, human-readable URLs
    • Optimise your images contextually and technically
    • Monitor, iterate, and be patient

If you apply these practices thoughtfully, you position your site not just to recover—but to thrive under Google’s more exacting standards.

References

1. Google Search Central – Spam Policies for Web Search
   https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies
2. Search Engine Journal – Google Confirms August 2025 Spam Update Is Complete
   https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-august-2025-spam-update-done-rolling-out/
3. Google Developers – Image SEO Best Practices
   https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/google-images
4. Google Developers – URL Structure Best Practices
   https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/url-structure
5. Google Search Central – Core Updates and Your Website
   https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/core-updates