By SCS SEO Team
Webmasters were scrambling to see if they had been hit by the latest Google algorithm update this week.
The Google October 2022 Spam Update was released on October 19 and was completed 48 hours later. The search engine giant confirmed it was a ‘global’ update and would ‘affect all languages’.
SEO forums were awash with talk of sites losing Organic Search traffic as the latest update targets specific elements that violate Google’s strict guidelines. The update is said to be more focused on spammy content rather than poor authority backlinks but the latter could also have played a part in a site losing its rankings in the SERPs.
Webmasters were being advised that if they lost large amounts of Organic Search traffic then it was likely down to them being impacted by the Google October 2022 Spam Update.
Google announced the update, albeit quietly, in its search updates page and said: “Released the October 2022 spam update. This update is global and affects all languages. The rollout was complete as of October 21, 2022. The rollout was complete as of October 21, 2022.”
Google explained that Google’s automated systems are constantly working on detecting spam using SpamBrain – AI-based spam-prevention system – and it is this programme that the search engine has ‘improved’. It also advised that sites that had violated its guidelines should make changes to reduce the amount of spam but it would not make an ‘immediate’ difference. This means it could be ‘months’ before a site’s rankings could be restored in the SERPs.
“From time-to-time, we improve that system to make it better at spotting spam and to help ensure it catches new types of spam,” wrote Google. “Sites that see a change after a spam update should review our spam policies to ensure they are complying with those. Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all. Making changes may help a site improve if our automated systems learn over a period of months that the site complies with our spam policies.”
The most recent confirmed Google spam update was the November 2021 Spam Update so this is the first one to focus solely on spam for almost a year. The November update took eight days to fully roll out, however Google confirmed the new October one only took two days.
