TLDR: Google rewrote its guidance on AI and low-effort content on October 1, spam updates are arriving faster than ever, and respected SEOs are predicting a major update soon. Hot tub dealers running syndicated manufacturer content are exposed to the same signals as sites mass-producing AI content, even if they never touched AI. Cleaning it up before an update is far cheaper than recovering after one.
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Something is coming…
I’ve been doing SEO for almost 21 years now, and I’ve lived through every single major algorithm update. I’ve felt for a while now that something is on the horizon. Something is coming, and it’s going to be big.
In the hot tub space, there are way too many sites right now leveraging syndicated content and AI content that have somehow skirted around Google and are ranking well. That is going to change very soon. I can feel it. It may not be tomorrow, and it may not be next week, but very soon.
I’ve seen this play out before with other algo updates.
- The Panda update in 2011 went after thin, low-quality content.
- The Penguin update in 2012 went after sites that had gamed their way up with manipulative links.
- The helpful content updates in 2022 and 2023 went after content written for search engines instead of people.
- The March 2024 core update brought in new spam policies, including scaled content abuse.
Every single one of them took out sites that thought they’d found a way around the rules, and every one of them had warning signs first.
I’m not the only one seeing it.
Earlier this week, a well-regarded SEO expert, Lily Ray, published her prediction that a major Google update is coming soon, based on a pattern she’s also watched for two decades: Google changes its documentation first, then it acts. I’d already felt it. I’ve been writing about it on this blog for months. Her piece lays out the evidence.
What Google Just Changed
This past week (October 1), Google updated its guidance on generative AI content. The line that stopped me: “It is critical to manually fact-check and review all AI-generated content for accuracy and trustworthiness before publishing.”
Google doesn’t use language like that casually.
The same page warns that using AI tools “to generate many pages without adding value for users may violate Google’s spam policy on scaled content abuse.” It also points to quality rater guidance describing main content with “little to no effort, little to no originality, and little to no added value.”
The pace matters too.
According to Google’s own status dashboard, spam updates rolled out on March 24, June 24, August 18 and September 24 this year. The gaps keep shrinking, from 92 days to 55 to 37. Ray notes that all of 2025 had just one. When a company speeds up like that, it isn’t tweaking. It’s tightening.
To be clear, this is a prediction, not an announcement. I don’t control Google, I don’t work for Google, I don’t know anyone who works for Google. Google hasn’t said a big update is coming. But when the documentation, the cadence and 21 years of pattern recognition all point in the same direction, I don’t wait for an email to come from Marie Haynes or to be posted on Search Engine Journal.
Why Hot Tub Dealers Should Pay Attention, Even Without AI
Here’s the part I think most dealers will miss.
Google’s definition of scaled content abuse isn’t limited to AI. It describes “large amounts of unoriginal content that provides little to no value to users, no matter how it’s created.” Its examples include scraping content to generate many pages and “stitching or combining content from different web pages without adding value.”
Now think about what a lot of dealer websites look like.
A vendor syndicates the same manufacturer descriptions, the same blog posts, and the same buying guides to hundreds of dealer sites at once. Some dealers swap in a city name or tweak a sentence. The words are nearly identical across hundreds of domains.
That isn’t AI content, but it fails the same test. Where is the effort? Where is the originality? What does your site say that the other 300 don’t?
I’m not claiming Google has named syndicated dealer sites as a target. It hasn’t, and duplicate content has historically been filtered or ignored more than punished.
My take is that the tolerance for low-effort content at scale is running out, and a site built entirely on it has nothing underneath if the filtering gets sharper. This industry already has a sea of sameness problem, with the same manufacturer images, the same syndicated copy, and the same templated pages. Google looks to be moving toward rewarding the opposite.
AI Cuts Both Ways
I’m a big believer in AI. If you’ve watched any of my YouTube videos, I think you probably already know that.
I think it can make a dealership’s marketing, sales, and operations meaningfully better. But Google’s new language is saying what I’ve been saying all along: a human has to be in the loop.
The dealers I worry about are the ones about to swap one shortcut for another.
They’ll drop the syndicated blog and have AI spin up 200 location pages with no review. That’s the same problem, just faster. Use AI to research, outline and draft. Then have someone who knows your customers, your products and your market shape what actually gets published.
What to Do Before the Update
First, find out what you have. Do a complete inventory.
Use Google Search Console to see which pages earn impressions and clicks. Then check whether their text is duplicated. Paste a distinctive sentence into Google in quotes and see how many other sites say the same thing.
Second, rewrite the pages that matter most first.
Start with product category pages, your top buying guides, and financing, delivery and install pages. Add what only you know: your local install details, your service team, your showroom, real customers and real photos.
Third, consolidate or remove the rest.
A hundred thin pages are a liability. Fewer, better pages beat more of the same.
Fourth, put real people on your content.
Real names, real photos, real credentials. Lily also flags Google’s new position on invented author profiles, so if your bylines are fictional, fix that now.
Fifth, review anything and everything AI touched.
Google’s guidance specifically names titles, meta descriptions, structured data, and image alt text, not just the body copy.
Clean Up Before, Not After
This needs to happen right now. Not next week, not next month, now. Tidying up ahead of an update costs a fraction of what a year of recovery does. I’d add that you don’t get to pick the day it arrives, only whether you’re ready when it does.
If you need help navigating this or helping with this huge lift, please reach out. I’d love to audit your site and walk through it with you to help you understand where you are at and what needs to be done.
FAQs
What is scaled content abuse?
It’s a Google spam policy covering many pages produced mainly to manipulate rankings instead of helping users, typically large amounts of unoriginal content with little value, “no matter how it’s created.”
Is syndicated manufacturer content a problem for my dealership’s SEO?
Duplicate content has historically been filtered more than penalized, but it gives Google no reason to prefer your site over hundreds of others. As Google tightens on low-effort content at scale, sites that rely on it carry more risk. Rewriting your most important pages is the safest move.
Is AI-written content against Google’s rules?
Not by itself. Google’s guidance says using AI to generate many pages without adding value may violate its spam policy, and that AI content should be manually fact-checked and reviewed before publishing.
How do I check whether my dealership’s content is duplicated?
Search a distinctive sentence from the page in quotes on Google, or run a site audit in a tool like Semrush that flags duplicate content.
Greg is the founder and CEO of Stryde and a seasoned digital marketer who has worked with thousands of businesses, large and small, to generate more revenue via online marketing strategy and execution. Greg has written hundreds of blog posts as well as spoken at many events about online marketing strategy. You can follow Greg on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn.
