Google Link Spam Update (Dec 2022): What Is It All About?

The Google link spam update that rolled out in December 2022 was a game changer for the SEO world and active websites in general. In case you didn’t know, Google no longer wanted to count the spammy links in a website positively and so they introduced SpamBrain – an AI-based spam-prevention system – to neutralize their impact on search results.

If you are a website owner yourself, you should learn more about this and know how to stay on the safe side when running your link building campaign.

What Is the Google Link Spam Update All About?

To understand what this update really means, you should know what link spam first.

We don’t have to look any further when we can hear it directly from Google itself-

“Any links that are intended to manipulate rankings in Google Search results may be considered link spam. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.”

Google considers backlinks as one of the most important factors when ranking websites. As a result, links have become a commercial selling point for many industries.

Some of these inbound links are legitimate and even recommended. Google acknowledges that the practice of paid and sponsored link-building is essential for the economy of online businesses but they have to be qualified at any cost.

Conversely, a bulk amount of the links is illegitimate and spammy. They are the ones Google considers troublesome. A link can be called spam once it violates Google’s strict spam policy and quality guidelines.

Generally, if you buy, sell or exchange links with money or a product or even another link, Google calls it spam. In a later section, we’re going to break down some of the most common types of links that Google considers as spam.

To ensure a better user experience and search quality, Google has recently updated their link spam algorithm- the “December 2022 Link Spam Update” to fight off such manipulative link-building trends.

What makes this recent update more unique than the previous ones is the incorporation of an AI tool called SpamBrain. Google designed this spam-prevention system in a way so it can identify not just the spammy links of a site but any low-quality link available with an exceptionally high accuracy.

It operates on the machine learning algorithm and literally learns from the websites to improve its efficiency. This means that if your website is spamming links even after an initial warning, it will keep penalizing you and call for manual action if necessary.

The tool also detects any unnatural link pattern; i.e., an unusually high number of outbound links in a short time span or links coming from unrelated niches.

Quick Facts About December 2022 Google Link Spam Update

In December, 2022, Google declared a major update of their link spam algorithm. This was brought out to neutralize the unfair advantage in SERP that many sites had with spammy and unnatural links.

Google had to say this about the update–

“Our algorithms and manual actions aim to nullify these unnatural links at scale, and we will continue to improve our coverage.”

The update finished rolling out after 29 days of its start and caused a significant stir in the SEO practices.

About search engine ranks and effects, Google also wrote –

“Ranking may change as spammy links are neutralized and any credit passed by these unnatural links are lost. This launch will affect all languages.”

So, the update takes every existing language into account. You can’t escape using foreign words in the URLs or anchor texts.

It can also alter the entire ranking positions of websites on Google search results as it “neutralizes” or “nullifies” the link spams and other unnatural link patterns. The words Google used here indicate that it won’t necessarily penalize you but stop counting your links altogether.

Simply put, Google will ignore your efforts no matter how good your content is and you’ll never be able to rank if you keep doing such spam link building.

What Types of Links Does Google Consider Spam?

One or two low-quality links will probably not affect your ranking at all. But if you keep getting a bulk of backlinks recklessly, it will be considered unusual and Google will intervene then. If your sources are shady, it can cause a huge problem for you.

Let’s look at the popular links that Google sees as spam and discuss how you can stand clear of them-

Paid Link Spam

Yes, it’s true that it’s not possible to detect every single paid link on a page or a site. If you purchase links in a controlled way, chances are that Google won’t penalize you despite their strict guidelines about paid link building practices.

However, if you buy links in bulk, you’ll leave footprints behind for Google to trace them back to you. If you’re unlucky, they may even downgrade you manually.

There is an indirect effect too. If a buyer, who you’ve never met nor known, starts spamming links from the same seller you did business with, Google will lead back to the source and eventually to you for buying from a spam site.

So, it’s not enough to know the rules yourself. Make sure your seller is also aware of Google policies and doesn’t spam links for anyone.

Spam Link Exchanges

Link exchange happens when two websites contractually agree to publish each other’s links. This is in contrast with natural reciprocal link exchange where websites publish relevant and useful backlinks for their content without any sort of obligation towards the linked site.

Google has always seen link exchange in a negative light. Google search analyst John Mueller, when asked about link exchange in an interview, said the following-

“A link exchange where both sides are kind of like you link to me and therefore I will link back to you, kind of thing, that is essentially against our webmaster guidelines. So that’s something where our algorithms would look at that and try to understand what is happening here and try to ignore those links.

And if the web spam team were to look at it they would also say this is not okay. And if this is the majority of the links to your website like this then they might apply manual action. So that’s something I would avoid.”

When John says “manual action”, that means if Google finds out your site is exchanging too much, it will employ actual experts to audit your site and charge you with a serious penalty.

So, link exchange is usually safe if you manage to make it seem natural. If you overdo it, it will be called spam whether the links are relevant or not. John adds-

“It doesn’t matter if it’s… like topically relevant or if it’s kind of like a useful link. If you’re doing this systematically then we think that’s a bad idea because from our point of view those are not natural links to your website. They’re only there because like you’re doing this deal with the other site.”

To counter this situation, a black-hat SEO tactic called Link Wheel has come into play. When you build a more structured web presence i.e., websites, blogs and put backlinks in them ultimately leading to your main website, a link wheel is created.

This is a way to inflate your popularity in the SERP by providing more inbound links to the site and manipulating the ranking system. This is much safer since you’re not exchanging with a single site, however, Google also prohibits this practice and if unlucky, it can follow the footprints using its spam-detection algorithm and nullify all your sites.

On top of that, it’s not that effective since you’ll need high-quality backlinks from each of the new sites to help Google notice your target site. This requires an incredible amount of time and hard-work, which can distract you from more important stuff.

Publish better content instead and see your authority go up with lesser efforts!

Link Farms

Link farm is a huge network of websites solely built to interlink between themselves and provide backlinks to a target site in exchange of money. This results in backlinks coming from low-authority and unrelated sites- which is already harmful for the target site.

Link farming is another black-hat SEO technique and has always been disliked by search engines. Google considers link farming unethical and spammy, and penalizes the link farmers alongside all other associated websites. Your entire site can be flagged as spam if you’re involved too much in link farming.

Comment Spams

One of the most abused link spamming techniques ever. What’s more is that even with the spamming, you can’t expect to achieve anything. Here’s why-

When you comment with a link in an authoritative site with over 1,000 comments, what do you think happens? No matter where your comment is, Google will pass only 1/1000^th of the link juice to your site. How do you plan to make any use of it?

The most reputable websites have started applying classifiers now. Classifiers are tools or algorithms designed to identify links in the comments section and devalue them. So, even the minimal chance you had of bringing in any authority by spamming links in comments is now gone.

Redirect Links

Spammers innovate many techniques to avoid Google spam algorithm updates. For instance, some believe they can spam an external domain and then redirect that domain to their main domain. The goal is to protect their main domain from spam by spamming another similar domain.

On a Reddit thread, John Mueller explained-

“The 301 basically makes the main site canonical, meaning the links go directly there — you might as well skip the detour, it’s just as obvious to the algorithms & spam team.”

So, you can’t really fool Google! Google spam-detection algorithm identifies your main site as the primary one when 301 redirect takes place. So, there’s no point in spamming redirect links.

How Does the Google Link Spam Algorithm Update Affect Your Site?

It’s necessary to realize how this update works to stay away from any type of malpractice in link-building.

Since the Google link spam update includes an AI algorithm, the entire process is automatic. This means that you won’t get a notice on Search Console when Google marks your site for dealing with link spams. This is a challenge because you wouldn’t know what hit you in the first place and find yourself penalized all of a sudden.

The penalty for link spam leads to devaluation of your site and an overall decrease in search engine rankings. As we’ve mentioned above, Google can simply stop counting your backlinks without actively penalizing you and yet, your rank will go down.

Since the update will change overall Google rankings, your competition may either get stronger or weaker. You have to look at your new position in the SERP and strategize accordingly.

Only the websites full of spammy and low-quality backlinks have to struggle against this update. But if you are a marketer or a webmaster practicing safe link-building authorized by Google, you shouldn’t have to worry about it.

How to Recover From 2022 Google Link Spam Update?

Something to remember – the Google link spam update in December 2022 is almost always accurate. Your ranking can drop if you directly violate Google’s guidelines or try to get around them following some cheap tricks from YouTube.

So, if it’s already hit you, be sure that you’ve done something wrong.

It’s still possible to fix this situation although the road ahead is rough. If you can buckle up for a few months, you can regain your reputation following this process-

• First of all, don’t panic. Remember, with every new Google update a lot of sites face similar issues. Just be patient and keep working till you get it right.
• Find out what went wrong. Try to remember any link spam you’ve ever got. If you can’t, just audit your entire backlink profile and see if there are links that stick out as spammy or low-quality. You can use Google Analytics or Search Console tools to figure it out easily. Don’t forget the SEO tools like Moz and Ahrefs can help too.
• Once you find the links and the websites they’re coming from, contact the webmasters of the sites and ask them to remove those links.
• If you can’t seem to reach them anyhow, make a list of your spammy links and use the Google Disavow Tool to let Google know that you don’t want it to consider them when ranking your site.
• You should also keep comment spams in mind. Delete all the comments you had spammed your links in.
• Finally, focus on the development of your website from now on. Try to get quality backlinks without spamming in bulk and be patient.

This is how you can get your website back on track. Just don’t make the same mistakes twice and you’ll be good to go.

Best Practices to Fight Google Link Spam

Desperate times call for desperate measures. This is what we’ve addressed in the previous section.

But why should you wait for something so extreme to happen before you take any action?

Take up the best SEO and link-building practices and make sure your site is not one of those getting flagged by every single update from Google.

Follow the Rules

Easiest to advise, difficult to maintain. But this is the first step and you have to take it seriously.

Read the Google guidelines and spam policies from top to bottom. If you’re a webmaster, there’s no excuse for ignorance.

For an overview, Google Search Essentials is a good start. We’ve already linked the Google spam policies above. Find the resources you need before link-building or completing your SEO.

Be smart and aware. A decent share of knowledge about these things takes you a long way.

Obtain High-authority Backlinks

Goes without saying that you need backlinks from authoritative sites to stand out in Google rankings. The better backlinks you have, the safer you will be during the updates.

Your links have to be relevant at the same time. Google spam-prevention algorithms also give penalties for irrelevant and indiscriminate links.

So, don’t look for any easy leeway when building your backlink profile or it will have consequences. Work hard to get organic backlinks and keep them relevant to your content.

But there’s a catch! Let’s talk a bit more about that.

Avoid Too Many Incoming Links within Short-time

A lot of high-quality backlinks coming from a single site around the same time is also suspicious. Google assumes you’re involved in paid or spam link-building when you get an unusual amount of links in a short time-span.

So, communicate with your source website, take your time to spread out and diversify your links.

Diversify Link Profile

We never mention the diversity of links so much as their quality, quantity and relevance.

But it’s just as important to get links from a range of websites to show Google how organic your site is.

This is because Google has such a sophisticated algorithm that nobody really knows how it operates exactly. What we do know is that it identifies unnatural linking patterns e.g. too many inbound links from a single website, and penalizes you for it.

So, it’s only logical that you should manage links from a range of sites and diversify your backlink portfolio in the process.

You can select a variety of sources in this case, such as-

• High authority sites within your niche
• Relevant high authority sites outside of your niche
• Relevant low authority sites within or outside your niche (not spams)
• Web directories
• Blog directories
• Social bookmarking sites
• Comments
• Forums
• Wikis

Once you’ve acquired such links on your site, you don’t need to bother about the link spam update anymore.

However, please don’t be desperate and fall into traps like link farms or PBN by any chance.

Avoid PBN and Link Farm

We’ve seen what link farm is all about already. Let’s talk about a similar concept called PBN.

Private Blog Network or PBN is a group of websites, owned by a single individual or an organization, built only to place backlinks.

The goal is to provide external backlinks to target sites without the consideration of whether they’re relevant or not. They just want Google to crawl and index their sites and count those links pointing to their client websites.

PBN usually offers low-quality backlinks and Google isn’t exactly fond of that. So, if your site has PBN links, Google will either discount them or in the worst case scenario, invoke a manual penalty on you. Whatever it is, your time and efforts into building or joining a PBN will go to waste.

So, avoid any PBN and link farms. Learn to spot a PBN and stay out of it. If you’ve already got some PBN links in your site, disavow or remove them immediately.

Revise Your Internal Link Structure

If the update has hit one of your pages that you’ve optimized with a black-hat strategy, the internal linking of your site needs work.

We do internal link-building to pass on the link juice within the site. If the links of a single page turn out to be spam, it can damage the entire site structure.

So, audit your internal link building as well and find out if there’s any sort of link spam in any of the pages. If there is, either remove the page, which is not always possible, or cut off the links leading back to that page from other pages.

Also, to diversify your profile and look natural to Google, consider getting some no-follow backlinks. They don’t bring in link juice, sure, but they can still drive some organic traffic in.

Choose Guest Blog Sites Carefully

We get so excited by guest blog opportunities that we often overlook the backlink profile of the site we write for. This is a severe mistake!

Check if they got organic traffic flowing in or not. What about their backlinks? If they’re spamming links and get hit by Google somehow, there’s a high chance the audit will lead back to you as well.

So, cover all the possible issues before deciding to guest blog on a site. Make sure the site is authoritative and practices safe link-building.

Stay Away from Bulk Spam Link Building

Spam links are already offensive on their own. If you start getting them in bulk, that might get your site a manual penalty.

Obviously, you would never want it, right? Then why risk everything you’ve built for something you can naturally gain anyways?

Just put in a more sincere effort and watch your site get big without any need for shrewd tactics.

Wrapping It Up

Google wants to ensure the best possible outcome in search results without giving any unfair advantage to sites with manipulative techniques. This is what its link spam update is all about.

We always recommend natural backlink building for websites. That’s exactly why we hope you’ll follow our blog and start playing safe!

We’re ending this with a quote from Google itself hoping it’ll resonate with you-

“Site owners should make sure that they are following the best practices on links, both incoming and outgoing. Focusing on producing high quality content and improving user experience always wins out compared to manipulating links. Promote awareness of your site using appropriately tagged links, and monetize it with properly tagged affiliate links.”

FAQs

Q. Are all link-building tactics bad?

Ans. No, not all link-building strategies are wrong. It’s recommended to produce high quality content and optimize your on-page SEO to build your backlinks naturally rather than paying for them.

Q. What’s the difference between good and bad backlinks?

Ans. Backlinks coming from high authority websites are generally considered good. On the other hand, if they originate from low authority or spam sites, they’re called bad.

Q. Where can I find guidance on ethical link-building practices?

Ans. Google itself provides an extensive guideline on SEO and link-building in their Google Search Essentials page. You can access and read from there.

mothasim

SEO & Growth Manager

A distinguished SEO and Business Development Consultant with a proven track record of helping businesses achieve outstanding results in the digital landscape. Throughout his career, Mothasim has worked with a diverse range of businesses, from startups to Fortune 500 companies.

His strategies are characterized by his meticulous attention to detail, data-driven decision-making, and a deep understanding of search engine algorithms. In his personal life, Mothasim enjoys hiking, photography, and volunteering in his community. He believes in giving back and is actively involved in mentoring aspiring SEO professionals. LinkedIn .