Google Link Spam Update (December 2022)

Google recently launched another Link Spam Update on December 14th, simultaneous with the Helpful Content Update. Both updates present a big deal to websites and businesses, as Google has yet to roll out two major updates within a month.

The search engine called it the December 2022 Link Spam Update, which would take two weeks to finish rolling out.

December 2022 Link Spam & SpamBrain

Today, with our December 2022 link spam update, we’re leveraging the power of SpamBrain to neutralize the impact of unnatural links on search results. The update launches today & will take about two weeks to rollout. Learn more: https://t.co/ACO2Ut8wmi

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) December 14, 2022

“Our launch today, which we refer to as the December 2022 link spam update, will take about two weeks to roll out fully.

Google rankings may change as spammy or low quality links are neutralised, and any credit passed by these unnatural links is lost. This launch will affect all languages.”

The latest Link Spam update will combat web spam using SpamBrain. Google reported that SpamBrain flagged 200 more webspam in 2021 than the previous year, thanks to its AI-based spam-prevention algorithm.

SpamBrain is a robust and continuously evolving spam-detection platform to address existing and novel types of web abuse.

What Businesses Should Know About The December Link Spam Update

Google’s spam detection system is designed to detect paid links and nullify domains that practice linking spam or passing poor-quality links to other sites.

By nullifying unnatural links, Google removes any effects and ranking boosts a website typically gets from webspam and blackhat SEO without penalising them.

Moreover, the December 2022 update is powered by SpamBrain, making it more adaptive and flexible on changing trends and spam practices. SpamBrain can also identify sites and paid links intended for unnatural link building.

What Can I Do To Safeguard My Business from Link Spam Updates?

Google reported that users might notice changes in SERPs as the December 2022 Link Spam Update takes effect and neutralises detected links.

It’s also worth noting that the update impacts all languages and is a Global update. You might want to audit your inbound and outbound links when you notice a drop in organic traffic and page rankings after the rollout date.

Whether Google’s Link Spam Update affects your pages boils down to how you acquire backlinks. Google has been cracking down on webspam and blackhat SEO tactics that aim to artificially boost search rankings at the expense of user experience.

A good example is reviewing your affiliate links in content pages. Affiliate links embedded in your website should have a rel=sponsored tag. Paid links and guest posts should also have rel=nofollow tags embedded into them. 

Failing to assign the proper link tag could get you flagged by the link spam update. Google interprets it as a link placed for manual manipulation of SERPs and is considered link spam.

Google also claims to conduct manual action aside from algorithm penalties or nullification for large-scale webspam and unnatural links.

Thanks to AI-based spam detection and robust crawling power, it continuously improves its coverage across multiple topics and languages.

So if you’re up to speed with Google’s best practices or are partnering with a data-driven SEO agency in Sydney, you should not worry about getting hit by the December 2022 Link Spam Update.

Feel free to contact our SEO team, and we’ll help you supercharge your business website against the latest Google updates and recover lost SEO rankings with proven white-hat techniques.