On October 1, 2026, Google updated Search Central's guidance on generative AI content, adding information from the Search Quality Rater Guidelines to match what it presented at a developer event.
What was updated
Google Search Central's updates log says the guidance on content made with generative AI was updated on October 1. Google says it incorporated information from the Search Quality Rater Guidelines to bring the documentation in line with its developer-event presentations.
The updated page says AI-written text must still meet the core search policies and the spam policies, and that mass-producing low-value pages can count as scaled content abuse.
Key points on the page
It stresses the importance of human fact-checking and review before publishing, because AI predicts likely wording rather than looking up facts and can therefore include errors.
It also asks you to check metadata, structured data, image alt text and title accuracy, and says explaining how content was created may be worth considering. The page recommends reading the relevant rater-guideline sections, but notes that rater scores do not directly decide rankings.
Background
The Quality Rater Guidelines are the handbook Google gives external raters who assess the quality of search results. This update does not ban the use of AI; it restates how to keep quality and originality.
This article is based on the updates log and the current page. Check Google's official pages for the exact changes, as documentation can change again.
TAKEAWAY
What this means for your project
If you use AI to draft your site's blog posts or announcements, fact-check names, prices, opening hours and claims yourself before publishing. Avoid mass-producing near-identical pages, and add information only your business can offer. Whether to say that AI helped is a judgment call about your readers.