Are you clued up on Google’s October 2023 spam update?
Google’s October 2023 spam update, explained
From 4th - 10th October 2023, Google rolled out a [much-needed] spam update. You may be wondering why this update is so significant…
The update targeted thin, copied, misleading, and AI-generated content.
The Google update focused on four key types of “spammy” content:
Cloaking: this refers to the practice of presenting different content to users and search engines with the intent to manipulate search rankings and mislead users.
Hacked content: this is any content placed on a site without permission, due to vulnerabilities in a site's security. Hacked content gives poor search results to users and can potentially install malicious content on their machines. [With this in mind, have you heard of our website security service, KetchupProtect?]
Auto-generated content: spammy automatically generated (or "AI-generated") content is developed programmatically without producing anything original or adding sufficient value. Instead, it's been generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users.
Scraped content spam: some site owners base their sites around content taken ("scraped") from other, often more reputable sites. Scraped content, even from high-quality sources, without additional useful services or content provided by your site won’t provide added value to users. It may also constitute copyright infringement! A site may also be demoted if a significant number of valid legal removal requests have been received.
Google utilises automated systems and human reviewers to identify and demote spammy pages and sites. With this new update to its spam detection capabilities, Google hopes to improve search results for users worldwide.
High-quality original content matters now more than ever.
What should you do next?
If you are concerned about the update, here’s what you should do next:
Review your website
Website owners should review their site content and SEO to avoid being impacted by Google's rigorous anti-spam efforts. Take a look at the content on your website and ask yourselves, “Is this original content that adds value to readers?”.
Check your links
Ensure that all links on your website are high-quality and from reputable sources.
Publish new, original content
Google’s October 2023 spam update was very clear - now is the perfect time to prioritise your website content strategy. Content that seems “spammy” will now negatively impact your site, so spend time evaluating, removing and then publishing new and original content. Don’t rely on AI to generate your content; instead, think about the value you can add to the reader, and what they want to know.
Do you need some help from our witty wordsmiths? Our saucy team will collaborate to ensure your website or blog content is compelling, SEO-optimised and easy to understand.
Looking to the future
This update shows a general shift in ethos from Google, especially around AI-generated content. Whilst the most recent update was by no means absolute in reducing the rankings of AI and spam content, it does show an agenda from Google which is likely set to continue and be refined with further updates.
As AI-generated content improves, so do the detection methods. We’re likely seeing the start of a long game of cat and mouse, with Google making its position very clear. It intends to favour human-written, value-adding original content over quickly generated but low-quality pages.