Google’s Most Recent Link Spam Update
At the tail end of 2021, did you observe a huge change in ranks and wonder what caused it? If so, there’s a good likelihood the November 2021 spam update is involved. We examine what Google considers spam and how to evade any upcoming algorithm modifications that deal with links.
This was the fourth algorithmic modification that Google made in 2021 to address the problem of web spam and prevent it from appearing highly in search results. The link spam upgrade also concentrated on removing questionable or hazardous websites while filtering out sites that offer users little or no value.
What is considered spam by Google?
Google programmers discover recurring themes and characteristics that should be classified as spam and modify their algorithm to suppress this content based on comments from a team of manual fact and quality checkers.
Typical traits of a page that might be blocked because of spam include:
Keyword stuffing: Overusing a specific keyword on a page is known as keyword stuffing.
Duplicate or stolen content: Spammy websites frequently employ stolen content or have a lot of it.
A page with a lot of adverts and outbound links: is one whose owner’s primary objective is to monetize the space on the page by selling advertisements, sponsored content, and outbound links.
Technical SEO mistakes: Website owners who are accused of spam generally have several broken connections and abandoned pages. This may be marked as spam by Google because it indicates carelessness.
Low-quality inbound links: Low-quality and spammy inbound links give the impression that your website is unreliable and are a frequent black hat SEO tactic.
Cloaking: Presenting different content to people than to search engines is known as cloaking.
Images or hidden text: can be used to add keywords, for instance text that blends in with the backdrop color.
Unlabelled affiliate links and sponsored posts: Use the appropriate “rel” value for sponsored posts and unlabeled affiliate links.
Google’s Response
This entails, as previously mentioned, ensuring that your material is authentic, clear, legible, and free of any black-hat SEO techniques. Google hasn’t made any comments on what they are specifically searching for in this spam update, but they have said that they are dealing with content that doesn’t adhere to their rules and that they encourage websites to do the same.
According to Danny Sullivan, Google’s Public Liaison for Search, this upgrade shouldn’t have an impact on content that adheres to Google’s policies. They typically keep an eye out for questionable, dangerous, or predatory websites.
Best methods to avoid having information marked as spam
Producing unique and interesting pages that provide value for the search terms you are targeting and adhere to Google’s Webmaster guidelines should be your first priority.
Since this is what you might anticipate from spammy websites, consider producing material that is more extensive than simply text on a page. You should use pages as creatively as you can. Include rich material like reviews or FAQs together with tables, videos, and other visuals. Your objective should be to increase user and customer engagement and readability. As a result, the ranks will improve.
Spend time enhancing your technical SEO, and look for broken links, dead ends, and orphan pages using tools and software like Screaming Frog.
Review the link structure of your pages, and that’s all. Avoid having too many external links, and when you do, make sure they are appropriately tagged using the word “rel.” The quantity of sponsored material or adverts on your website should also be taken into consideration. While this could increase your income in the short term, they might degrade your rankings over time.
How can you tell whether you have received punishment?
There are several ways to determine whether you have received a penalty:
Have you noticed a sudden drop in the rankings for certain search phrases since November, according to Google Search Console? Google may occasionally entirely erase a site from its search results.
Check your Traffic – If Google Search Console is not set up, look at your website’s traffic. Have you noticed a strange decline in traffic that deviates from historical patterns?
Review your backlink profile – As a final step, you may examine your backlink profile using technical SEO tools like Majestic. Do any questionable or spammy websites connect to you? Examining any with a low Trust Flow score will help you determine this quickly.
Future steps…
The main lesson from Google’s spam updates is to make sure on-page content is clear, pertinent, and adds value to a search query. This lesson can sound very technical and confusing to some people. Strong UX is always given priority by Google’s algorithm. Alongside this, there needs to be compelling content.
Contact the helpful SEO staff at Harnix Tech if you have any questions regarding your backlink profile or have seen a decline in your rankings. If you believe that the most recent link spam updates have impacted some pages on your website, our technical SEO experts will be pleased to inspect and evaluate those pages. We can provide you with suggestions on how to raise page ranks, assist you in putting those suggestions into action, and improve the design of your website to increase organic visitors.
