Google updates Search docs, extends spam rules to AI responses

Google has drawn a clearer line around AI inside Search: attempts to manipulate generative AI responses now sit squarely inside its spam rules, and the company is also phasing out FAQ rich results. For publishers, that turns AI visibility from a special lane into the same old compliance game, with the same penalties for deceptive tactics.

The May 2026 documentation update makes the point bluntly. Google’s spam-policy language now says spam includes techniques used to deceive users or manipulate Search systems, including generative AI responses in Google Search. Google also says those policies apply to all web search results, including results from its own properties. If a violation is detected, the result can be pushed lower in rankings or removed entirely, and Google says automated systems or human review can both be used to find the problem.

That matters because Google has already been warning against scaled AI content for months. Its guidance on generative AI content says using AI tools to generate many pages without adding value for users may violate the spam policy on scaled content abuse. The new wording closes off any fantasy that AI-generated text gets a softer standard just because it appears in a synthesized response instead of a traditional result.

The other big change is the end of FAQ rich results. Google’s FAQPage documentation says FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Google Search on May 7, 2026. Support for the FAQ search appearance, the FAQ rich result report, and Rich Results Test support will be removed in June 2026, and FAQ rich result support will be removed from the Search Console API in August 2026. Google also says FAQ rich results are now only available for well-known, authoritative government-focused or health-focused websites, a limit that had already narrowed the feature to a tiny slice of the web.

The pattern is familiar. In August 2023, Google reduced FAQ rich results to those same government and health sites and limited How-To rich results to desktop. A month later, Gary Illyes said the broader cleanup of search features was about making results look cleaner, not mainly about carving out space for AI. The May 2026 changes fit that same logic: fewer special cases, tighter policy enforcement, and less room to treat markup or AI output as a shortcut around Search quality rules.