Google has recently completed a major update to its spam algorithm that has the potential to greatly impact the way in which marketers and SEO practitioners do business. Dubbed “Google’s Spam Update” by SEO professionals, the major update is part of a larger trend of Google using excessive AI and machine learning to better detect and penalize spammy content and to protect its users from malicious websites.
The major update, while details of which remain confidential, is believed to target spammy or deceptive content and websites, including spammy backlinks, malicious javascript, and content stuffed with keywords. Google is attempting to improve the quality of search results, making web searches much safer and more reliable for users.
Consequently, sites that employ lazy SEO tactics, or are guilty of churning out low quality content, will likely be penalized under the new algorithm. Google is clearly getting tougher on spammy and malicious content, so firms will now need to think twice before creating low quality content simply to rank well in Googleserach.
It is not only website creators that need to worry, however. Marketers that employ a link-building strategy, or who have purchased spammy backlinks in the past, will also have to pay attention to this new update. If a website buys a spammy link, or links to a page with a large number of links from low-quality sites, then this could lead to a penalty for the website and a drop in rankings.
Ultimately, Google’s “spam update” is likely to have a significant impact on search results, as well as the way SEO practitioners and marketers do business. Ultimately, it is clear that Google is now even more determined to make quality, rather than quantity, the major factor in rankings. SEO practitioners that want to remain successful, should therefore pay close attention to this update and adjust their practices accordingly.