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Google Launches (Final?) Spam Update Of The Year


Google has announced the December 2024 spam update.

The updateexpected to be completed within a week, comes amid ongoing industry debate over the effectiveness of Google’s anti-spam measures.

This December update wraps up a year of anti-spam measures, including a spam update in June and a core update in March, which targeted offending websites and aimed to reduce “unhelpful” content by 40%.

It’s also worth mentioning that this update follows closely December Core Update.

Looking back on the update year

This year has seen an unprecedented frequency of major algorithm updates, with major updates in March, August, November and December.

The August update, which took nearly three weeks to complete, targeted low-value SEO content while promoting high-quality material.

December’s core update, launched on December 12, came unusually close to the November update, with Google explaining that different systems are often improved in parallel.

Transformation of politics

This year marked a shift in Google’s approach to spam detection and prevention with three major policy updates.

1.Abuse of site reputation

Introduced in May 2024, Google began targeting “parasitic SEO” practices where third-party content exploits the authority of established domains.

This update mainly affected:

  • Major publishers that host third-party product reviews
  • News sites with extensive coupon sections
  • Sports websites with content generated by artificial intelligence

The policy change led to significant losses, including several prominent publishers who were subject to manual actions for hosting third-party content without sufficient oversight.

2. Expired domain abuse

Google’s increased focus on expired domain manipulation addressed the following:

  • Buying expired domains to leverage backlinks
  • Repurposing authoritative domains for unrelated content
  • Domain squatting to manipulate search rankings

3. Scaled abuse of content

Previously known as “auto-generated spam”, these rebranded policies have been expanded to include:

  • Content generated by artificial intelligence in large numbers
  • Mass-produced content on multiple websites
  • Manipulation of content translation
  • Automated content transformation techniques

See more: A detailed overview of Google’s spam policy updates and what’s changed

Spam specific updates

June 2024 Spam update

  • Implementation period lasting one week
  • Targeting websites that violate the rules
  • Improved automated content discovery

November 2024 Implementation of SRA

  • Enforcement of penalties for misuse of site reputation
  • Influenced the sponsored content strategies of major publishers
  • Significant adjustments are needed to the content policies of all news sites

A look ahead

With December’s core update finished rolling out and a new spam update now underway, brace yourself for another round of potential ranking fluctuations for the rest of the year.

The spam update is expected to be completed next week, with progress being tracked via Google’s search status dashboard.


Featured Image: JHVE Photography/Shutterstock





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