Understanding the Impact of Google’s Recent Spam Update
It has been almost a year since the last time Google released a spam update, but on October 19, 2022, Google announced plans to roll out a global spam update to Google Search that will affect all languages. The official Google list of announced updates predicted the rollout would take about two weeks. However, by October 21, Google completed its 2022 spam update within 48 hours. Read on to learn more about this update and its impact to search results and implications for your website’s ranking.
What Is the Google Search Spam Update?
Google regularly issues updates to enhance its automated spam-detecting systems and maintain useful search results. This is because if Google results are filled with spam, it creates a terrible user experience, and people would stop using Google. According to Google’s explanation, Google uses its automated systems to identify the most relevant and reliable information from hundreds of billions of pages in Google’s index to help people find what they’re looking for.
Through its evaluation process, Google analyzes spam sources, such as low-quality sites that trick users to provide personal information or install malware. While the exact details of these updates are rarely publicized, some of the other spam sources that could be targeted by Google’s spam update include:
- Phishing and deceitful actors who pose as relevant sources
- Hacked content
- Keyword stuffing
- User-generated spam
- Cloaking
- Sneaky redirects
- Machine generated traffic
- Thin affiliate pages
- Spammy auto-generated content
- Misleading functionality
- Sneaky redirects
Impact of the Recent Google Spam Update
Do you know that spam updates can demote a site’s ranking in search results or remove it completely from the Google index? If your website is not well secured, it can attract spam hacks that can negatively affect your site’s ranking.
Research shows that much of Google’s latest spam update targeted sites with poor meta tags, thin content, and keyword stuffing, especially for AI-generated content. As a result, the traffic and keyword rankings of these sites dropped. Sports and news sites are among the industries that were greatly affected as they focus more on content than products.
If you observe any of the above changes following the October 2022 spam update, you should examine your site’s security by looking for signs of a possible attack. Normally, as mentioned earlier, when Google hits your site with a spam update, your content will either get demoted in the search results or deindexed from Google.
If a spam update has hit your website, Google says it could take months to recover. Don’t worry if you’re willing to make the necessary changes to comply with Google’s spam policies.
Work with Pink Dog Digital to Help Your Website Comply with Google’s Spam Policies
Are you concerned about how the latest Google spam update may affect your website’s ranking online? Don’t worry! Pink Dog Digital is doing everything in its power to monitor our clients’ websites in light of this recent announcement from Google. We also have a team of SEO experts and web designers that can help you design a well-optimized website that meets Google’s policies.
Contact Pink Dog Digital to speak with one of our marketing experts to ensure your website complies with Google’s spam policies and ranks well. For more information, email us at pinkdogdigital@gmail.com, call us at 410-696-3305, or visit our website at pinkdogdigital.com.