Google has announced the rollout of its June 2024 spam update, which aims to further improve search results by targeting websites that violate Google's spam policies.
The update, which began on June 20, is expected to take up to a week to be fully rolled out, according to the statement.
Today we released the June 2024 Spam Update.
This may take up to a week to complete. Once the rollout is complete, it will be posted to the Google Search Status Dashboard: https://t.co/EkzeXvUZwH
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) June 20, 2024
A Google search representative said the update is not an algorithmic component of the Site Reputation Abuse update.
This has not yet been rolled out and Google will make a separate announcement to let users know when it does.
For the third time, I will say it again, I am sure that when we act algorithmically on reputation abuse on our sites, we will. Not now. Also, I do not intend to answer this particular question every week, so I might go a month between questions (I am…
— Google Search Liaison (@searchliaison) June 20, 2024
Google's spam updates and policy background
Google regularly updates its systems to reduce low-quality and spam content from search results.
Spam updates target websites that violate Google's rules, such as:
- They auto-generate content just to improve your search rankings.
- Buying or selling links to manipulate rankings.
- Having thin, duplicated, or poor quality content.
- Trick users with hidden redirects and other deceptive techniques.
Google's last spam update was released in March.
Even though the March update affected many spam websites, some AI-generated content still ranked highly in search results.
According to an analysis by Roger Montti of Search Engine Journal, some AI spam sites ranked for more than 217,000 queries, with over 14,900 of them appearing in the top 10 search results.
These sites employed tactics such as rapid content changes, AI-generated imagery, and templated article structures to exploit loopholes that allowed new content to rocket up the rankings first.
Potential impact on search results
The June spam update may further improve Google's spam detection capabilities.
However, past experience has shown that closing loopholes can unintentionally affect legitimate websites.
As with any significant update, the June spam update may cause fluctuations in search rankings for some websites.
Websites that violate Google's spam policies or rely heavily on AI-generated content may see their visibility in search decrease.
On the other hand, some websites may benefit from this update as they will have less competition from spam websites in search results.
Future outlook
Google says it could take up to a week for the June 2024 spam update to be fully rolled out.
Once the rollout is complete, Google will post updates to its Search Status Dashboard, allowing you to assess the impact of the updates on your search rankings.
Featured image: Danishch/Shutterstock