Every week, the MSP team breaks down the dental marketing news that actually matters, from Google updates and AI search changes to social media trends, SEO shifts, and reputation management surprises.

• Google releases its September 2026 spam update, with a rollout window of up to two weeks
• Google has published research on SAFE, a new system for catching AI-generated spam
• Google is testing a feature that lets Gemini phone businesses on a customer’s behalf
• Google is testing bigger Local Services Ads
• A new experiment finds Google’s AI Mode cuts clicks without improving satisfaction
• Quick hit: Google’s AI Max upgrades wrap up this month, and new reporting is on the way
• Quick hit: AI Overviews now show up in nearly 4 in 10 U.S. desktop searches

What happened: Google began rolling out the September 2026 spam update on September 24. It’s the fourth spam update of the year, and Google says it could take up to two weeks to finish, compared with a few days for the March, June, and August rollouts. Google called it a normal spam update and didn’t announce any new policies or say which types of spam it’s targeting. Separately, Search Engine Journal reported on SAFE, a Google research system built to catch AI-generated “slop” by looking for content that violates the spirit of a policy, not just the letter of it. SEJ suggested SAFE could be connected to this update, but Google hasn’t confirmed that, and the research paper is mainly about networks of AI-generated video channels.

Why dentists should care: A two-week rollout makes it harder than usual to tell what’s behind a ranking wiggle, since the update is overlapping with normal day-to-day movement. The bigger picture is that Google keeps investing in spotting mass-produced AI content, which lines up with the platform crackdowns we’ve covered before. If your practice uses AI to help with blog posts or Business Profile updates, this is a good reminder that a human review and real practice-specific detail matter.

What to do next:

• Wait until the rollout is officially complete before drawing conclusions about any ranking changes, and jot down the dates you notice movement
• Avoid publishing batches of lightly edited AI content. Add real details about your team, your services, and your community
• If rankings do drop, remember recovery is usually measured in months, not days

What happened: Google is testing a feature called “Call for Me” that lets Gemini call a business on a customer’s behalf to do things like make or reschedule an appointment or check whether something is available. For now it’s limited to Pixel 11 owners in the U.S. who pay for a Gemini subscription and use the beta version of Google’s Phone app. Gemini can share personal details the user has approved, and the user can follow the call live and take over at any time. Reports on the feature say Gemini identifies itself as an AI assistant at the start of the call, and that it can’t handle emergency calls or financial transactions. Meta’s AI agents can place calls too, according to TechCrunch.

Why dentists should care: This is a very small test today, but the direction is clear. Before long, some of the people calling your office to ask about availability or to reschedule may be an AI assistant working for a patient. That’s a new kind of caller for your front desk, and one that could easily be mistaken for a spam call and hung up on.

What to do next:

• Give your front desk a heads-up that an automated caller identifying itself as an AI assistant may be a legitimate patient request
• Keep your hours, insurance details, and new patient availability consistent everywhere online, since AI search and AI callers rely on the same information
• If missed calls are already a pain point, that’s a good time to look at phone coverage, which is exactly what our Annie AI receptionist is built for

What happened: Google is testing a larger Local Services Ads format in Search, with bigger images and a more prominent highlight box beneath the main listing. The test was spotted by Anthony Higman of Adsquire. There’s no sign yet that it will roll out broadly, and Google says the ongoing migration of LSAs into Google Ads isn’t changing where migrated ads can appear on Search and Maps.

Why dentists should care: Local Services Ads already sit above the traditional results for many local searches. Bigger listings take up more room, which could push organic results and Maps listings further down the page. If you run LSAs, that could mean more visibility. If you don’t, it could mean competitors who do are taking up even more of the screen.

What to do next:

• If you run LSAs, keep your photos, reviews, and business info polished, since that’s what may be shown larger
• If you don’t, search your own top keywords now and again to see how much space paid local listings are taking
• If your account is scheduled to migrate, keep downloading your historical LSA reports beforehand

What happened: Researchers tracked about 1,100 people using a browser extension and randomly assigned them to different versions of Google. People assigned to AI Mode clicked out to external websites less often, and reported lower satisfaction, trust in Google, and sense of control. They were also more likely to try other search engines like Bing, DuckDuckGo, or Yahoo, by about 11 percentage points. The study includes a caveat, though. Google changed how AI Overviews were coded midway through, which weakened the researchers’ ability to hide them, so the comparison with a no-AI experience is an estimate.

Why dentists should care: A while back we covered Google’s claim that its AI search features send billions of clicks to websites every week. Billions is a big number, but it isn’t the same as “as many as before,” and this experiment is one more data point suggesting AI answers keep people on Google instead of sending them to websites. For a practice, that means fewer patients may reach your site from a search, even if you’re being seen.

What to do next:

• Track calls, direction requests, and form submissions, not just website visits
• Make sure your Google Business Profile has your phone number and booking link front and center, since more decisions are being made before anyone reaches your website
• Treat this as one study, not a verdict. The trend is worth watching without overreacting

The automatic upgrade of eligible Search campaigns to AI Max that we flagged earlier is expected to wrap up by the end of September. Google also announced a unified report that will connect the search term that triggered an ad, the creative shown, and the landing page visited, though there’s no launch date yet. Its AI Brief feature, which lets advertisers give AI Max written guidance about their business and audience, is expanding in closed beta to more languages, including Spanish. If your ads are managed by someone else, ask whether your campaigns were upgraded and what changed.

Comscore data shows Google searches with an AI Overview reached 39.4% of U.S. desktop searches in June, up from 25.8% the previous July. The report also found ChatGPT’s share of AI assistant prompts fell from 70% to 50% over the first half of the year as Gemini and others grew, which is another reason not to assume visibility on one AI platform carries over to the rest. A quick note if you’re comparing numbers, though. We’ve cited a higher AI Overview figure before, but that came from a different data source, so the two measure different things and aren’t in conflict.

The thread this week is that patients have more ways to reach a practice that skip your dental website entirely. AI answers that keep them on Google, paid local listings that take up more of the page, and now AI assistants that pick up the phone on their behalf. None of that is a reason to panic, but it is a reason to make sure your phone number, hours, and Business Profile are complete and consistent everywhere. For now, ignore any confident theory about exactly what the spam update targets (Google hasn’t said), and any pressure to react to ranking movement before the two-week rollout is done.

• Google releases September 2026 spam update – Search Engine Land
• Google Has Deployed A New AI Spam Detector Called SAFE – Search Engine Journal
• Google tests letting Gemini make phone calls, initially for U.S. Pixel owners – TechCrunch
• Google tests bigger Local Services Ads – Search Engine Land
• Google AI Mode cuts clicks without boosting satisfaction: Study – Search Engine Land
• Research Shows Google AI Mode Sends Less Clicks & Is A Poor User Experience – Search Engine Journal
• Google expands AI Brief and adds deeper AI Max reporting – Search Engine Land
• Google AI Overviews now appear in 39% of U.S. desktop searches – Search Engine Land

Adrian Lefler is the CEO and Co-Founder of My Social Practice and a recognized dental marketing expert with nearly two decades of experience. He is a trusted voice in dental marketing, AI in dentistry, and emerging technology, and he hosts BYTE SIZED, a podcast focused on dental AI, innovation, and technology.