Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Is your website affected by Google’s December 2022 Link Spam update? Everything you need to know.

By Anoop Dubey
December 28, 2022

On December 14, 2022, Google began to roll out the December 2022 link spam update, which undoubtedly has some impact! It is a well-known fact that when this update was rolled out, many people benefited from the same, while it left many worrisome. As per the industry experts, this update will take up to around two weeks after the initial date to fully roll out. In the most recent update on December 20, 2022, the company claimed that it might take much longer instead of two weeks. After the launch of this update, social media was flooded with posts, tweets etc., as individuals shared the update's impact.

What is the December 2022 link spam update by Google?

For this update, Google will leverage the power of SpamBrain link algorithm to neutralize the impact of unnatural links on search results. Spambrain, Google's AI-based spam-prevention system, is designed to identify and nullify unnatural links, including those on sites that engage in link-buying or link-building activities. Therefore, the website that uses spammy link-building tactics will have significant implications with this update as it is primarily here to improve the effectiveness of the spam detection system and help protect users from spammy or low-quality content. Google claims that the website ranking may be affected by this update as it neutralizes the spammy links, and any credit passed by these unnatural links is lost. Moreover, it will affect all languages.

How is it affecting websites?

The company had advised that the rankings may change after this update as it neutralizes unnatural links, removing any signals passed to the linking domain. Moreover, it affects search results in all languages, potentially creating a widespread impact.

What is the way forward?

To detect spam and control bot functioning on the internet, such updates are being regularly rolled out. However, with this update, there are certain precautions one needs to keep in mind from now onwards. Firstly, ensure that the links you create for your website are natural and follow Google's webmaster guidelines. Secondly, it is essential to work on improving your website to naturally attract new links over time. (Note: Prior to this update, another update, i.e. Google's helpful content update, has also impacted the websites that had low-quality content. So, from December 14, 2022, after the link spam update, both these updates made a back to back impact on the keyword ranking and SERP visibility of the websites.)

How Can #ARM Worldwide help you here?

As this update will push down the rankings of low quality that have received undue advantage due to backlinks that were bought, along with the SEO strategy, it is also essential for companies to focus on the website's in-depth audit, quality backlinks and content. Moreover, our SEO team, which keeps a round-the-clock tab on what's happening in the industry, ensures that timely solutions are provided so that if there are any repercussions, the impact can be lowered and brought down to the bare minimum. These updates are unpredictable, so keeping an eye on what's happening around is essential and requires a keen focus on the same. One miss, and you are in for a downfall.