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Hot news coming in fresh about Google’s most recent search system impacts. The December 2022 link spam update started rolling out almost a week ago.
Now, we’re seeing what impacts have been made as a result. SEO and Google search experts were hoping for an update that would have some kick to it. According to Barry Schwartz, they won’t be disappointed.
What Is The Link Spam Update?
On December 14th, Google started rolling out an updated link spam system. The update was reported to take about two weeks to roll out fully.
According to Google, this system makes use of SpamBrain AI to “detect both sites buying links, and sites used to pass outgoing link,” and not just “detect spam directly.”
Search Engine Roundtable says the expected impacts “are to “neutralize” links that it detects as being spam and thus links that are detected won’t be counted and may show a decline in rankings.”
What’s more, this system has been rolling out globally and affects all languages.
The Impacts of December 2022 Link Spam Update
In terms of updates for the December 2022 link spam update, SEO should be pleased with the impact it’s having. Take a look at this snapshot from RankRanger’s Tracking Tool below, you can easily see the fluctuations this impact is causing.
Barry Schwartz reports he is “seeing a nice number of real reports of sites feeling the impact in a big way and Google really being able to zone in on links it never did prior with other link algorithms.” He’s not the only one who notices the dips in visibility. Here’s what SEO consultant Glenn Gabe noticed about the system’s impacts.
And here are more examples of drops in visibility based on the December link spam update. These sites are all in travel and have some terrible unnatural links. But again, I would have assumed Google was already devaluing them. Maybe not… Check out the drops starting on 12/14: pic.twitter.com/YNENHajVQR — Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 18, 2022
In a nutshell, this link spam update has some search traffic climbing upwards of 30% and the next second plummeting down low. So the impacts, are varied depending on the sites.
However based on the SEO chatter across the board, it seems it you did a lot of link-building, the impacts on your site can be quite significant.
With the link spam update rolling out globally, across all languages, we’ll have a couple more weeks to take note of its full impact.
