Another Google update? Yes really.

On October 19, 2022 Google made an update to its algorithm—one that specifically affected organic search results.

Here’s what you need to know…
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What is it?

Officially called the “October 2022 spam update”, Google has said: “SpamBrain is our AI-based spam-prevention system. 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”

It’s global and affects websites in all languages—no one is safe ;)
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What is spam?

There are many things considered spam by Google’s algorithm. Here are the top offenders:

• Text and links on web content that are not visible to humans
• Unnecessary and excessive keywords within the content
• Links for the sake of links that don’t provide any value to your visitors
• Content copied from other websites
• Content created by AI in order to increase content volume when it has no value
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Why do you need to know?

This update affects organic results—they are the ones you don’t pay for, i.e. not the ad campaigns you run in Google.

What it means is that if your content is spammy, you’ve got a poor backlink strategy or have other content that is considered ‘poor’—you may be impacted by this latest update.

On the plus side, this should benefit brands who are doing the right thing by getting rid of the spammy results that are interfering with customers seeing your brand.
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What to do if you’ve been affected

Google hasn’t specified whether the update focused on links, content or other forms of spam—but it’s probably safe to assume it’s everything. If you’ve noticed a drop in your website’s organic search rankings, here are some things to do:

• Contact your SEO and/or content agencies
• Check whether the content on your website is in line with Google’s spam policies
• Remove any spammy content from your site right away
• Follow Google Search Essentials (formerly known as the Google Webmaster Guidelines)