Ho, ho, ho, Merry spam update!
Just one day after completing the December Core Update, Google announced a new Spam Update that will take approximately one week to roll out.
That means the update will finish right around Christmas time, which is something that site owners probably aren’t happy about.
The good news is this update shouldn’t impact too many websites, as it only targets sites in violation of Google’s spam policies (more on these in a bit).
Prior to this announcement, the last Spam Update occurred in June of this year, referred to as the June 2024 Spam Update.
What are spam updates?
SpamBrain is Google’s AI-powered spam prevention system. It’s in charge of locating spam policy violations online, and Google is constantly working on it.
Whenever they make significant changes and improvements to SpamBrain, Google officially announces a Spam Update, like the one announced today. So, if you see any drop-offs in traffic or keyword rankings, this update could be the culprit.
Stay tuned to learn everything you need to know about this update and what you should do if you get impacted.
Unwrapping the Update
2024 saw many Google updates in the tail-end of the year. First, there was the November 2024 Core Update, which began on November 11th and wrapped up on December 5th.
Just one week later, Google announced yet another Core Update on December 12th, and it wrapped up on December 18th.
Instead of taking it easy for the holidays, Google had other plans.
Just one day after the Core Update completed, Google announced this Spam Update, which they predict will take around a week to finish.
While Google didn’t comment on which tweaks they’re making to SpamBrain this time, we can assume that they’re enhancing the program’s overall spam detection. Any website found in violation will receive manual actions of varying severity depending on the situation.
Google has this to say about possible impacts from the update, “Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all. Making changes may help a site improve if our automated systems learn over a period of months that the site complies with our spam policies.”
So, if your website does see adverse effects from the update (like having your content removed from the results pages entirely), all you have to do to recover is fall into compliance with Google’s policies.
For example, let’s say SpamBrain finds you in violation of Google’s policy against expired domain abuse and has your content removed from the search results. This is because you’re operating a website that sells fishing gear on an expired domain that used to belong to a government agency.
To Google, you’re using the clout built up from the domain to promote unrelated products, which they view as spammy and unhelpful to users.
The solution?
Buying a new domain that has no previous affiliation with other organizations will show Google that you’re now in compliance, so your content should return to the SERPs (search engine results pages) once the algorithm notates the change.
An Overview of Google’s Spam Policies
Google has quite a few spam policies outlined in the document we linked previously, but here’s a quick breakdown of the most common ones:
- Cloaking. This is when websites use trickery to show different content to search engines than they do to users. An example would be a website presenting itself as a travel site to Google, but it’s actually an illegally gambling site for users.
- Expired domain abuse. Like the example mentioned previously, expired domain abuse happens whenever a new site uses an expired domain name of another type of site (like a government agency or educational institution).
- Hacked content. Things like backlinks and guest posts are valuable, but you have to ask for permission from other site owners to add them. Hacked content happens whenever site owners forgo that step and decide to hack another website and add links/content at will.
- Hidden text and link abuse. There are sneaky ways to hide links and text within a site so that you get the ranking value from them but users don’t see them at all. An example would be including white text on a white background.
- Keyword stuffing. It’s crucial to use trending search terms in your content to rank for them, but there’s a fine line between proper keyword use and keyword stuffing. Excessive keyword use in order to rank higher is seen as spam by Google.
- Link spam. Building backlinks for the sole purpose of ranking higher is viewed as link spam by Google. This includes doing things like buying backlinks, taking part in excessive link exchanges, and setting up private blog networks (PBNs).
These are by no means all of Google’s spam policies, but they are the most prevalent. Be sure to review Google’s documentation to ensure you aren’t violating any other policies, especially if you’re affected by the update.
Lastly, don’t make a move until the update is done rolling out. This will help ensure that A) the negative impact was actually due to the update and B) that no further adverse effects occur while the update rolls out.
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