Last Wednesday, October 19, Google announced the implementation of a classification algorithm update focused on spam in search results. Dubbed the October 2022 spam Update, its rollout is expected to take around a week to complete. This is a global update that will affect all languages.
Google has explained that “Although Google’s automated systems for detecting search spam work continuously, sometimes we make notable improvements to them. When that happens, we refer to these improvements as spam updates and share them on our list of Google Search ranking updates. For example, SpamBrain is our AI-based spam prevention system. From time to time, we improve that system to make it more effective at detecting spam and making sure it recognizes new types of spam.”
“If you see a change to your site after a spam update, please review our spam policies to make sure you’re in compliance. Sites that violate our policies may rank lower or no longer appear in search results. Making changes can help a site improve its ranking if our automated systems observe for a few months that the site complies with our spam policies.” The company directs content publishers to Google Search Essentials in order to improve their indexing.
What Google considers spam
In this case, when Google talks about spam, it is not referring to the annoying emails that usually fill up our spam folder. The company refers to spam pages as those that try to trick the search algorithm in order to improve their positioning, or that directly carry out illicit activities.
As Google explains in its Spam Policies document, webspam includes practices such as:
- Concealment. It refers to the practice of displaying different content to users and search engines to manipulate search rankings and mislead users.
- Door pages. These are sites that are created to appear in response to similar and specific search queries. They direct users to intermediate pages that are not as useful as the final destination.
- Pirated content. Pirated content is content that is placed on your site without your permission because its security has been compromised. It gives users insufficient search results and can install malicious content on their computers.
- Hidden text and links. It consists of placing content on a page to manipulate search engines, but in a way that visitors cannot easily see it. Like using white text with a white background, hiding text behind an image, or using CSS to include off-screen text.
- Too many keywords. Keyword stuffing refers to the practice of stuffing a web page with keywords in an attempt to manipulate its ranking in Search results.
- Link spam. Buy or sell links for positioning purposes.
- Automatically generated traffic. Consumes resources and interferes with Google’s ability to better serve users
- Malware and malicious behavior. Google scans websites for malware or unwanted software that negatively affects the user experience.
- Misleading features, such as a site that claims to offer certain features (for example, PDF merging, a countdown timer, or an online dictionary service), but intentionally directs users to misleading advertising instead of providing the services mentioned .
- Copied content. Copied content, even if it comes from high-quality sources, does not provide added value to users if it does not include additional useful services or own content from your site
- Misleading redirects. A redirect is the act of sending a visitor to a different URL than the one they initially requested.
- Deceptive automatically generated content. Automatically generated content is content that is created by computer programs without providing anything original or adding enough value. Its main purpose is not to help users, but to manipulate the positioning of search results.
- Worthless affiliate link pages. Valueless affiliate link pages are product affiliate link pages where product descriptions and reviews are copied from the original seller, without any original content or added value.
- Spam generated by users. User-generated spam is misleading content that users add to a site through a channel where they can generate content.
Google’s previous spam update was the November 2021 Spam Update that went live on November 3 of last year.