Last Wednesday, December 14th, Google began to roll out the December 2022 link spam update, and it seems at least based on the chatter and tracking tools I follow, this link spam update has some teeth. I am seeing a nice number of real reports of sites feeling the impact in a big way and Google really being able to zone in on links it never did prior with other link algorithms.
As a reminder, here are some quick facts on this update, and then below, I will share some of the impacts it had on sites this SpamBrain link algorithm picked up on:
December 2022 Google Link Spam Update Quick Facts
Here are the most important things that we know right now in short form:
Name: Google December 2022 Link Spam Update
Launch Date: It began to roll out on December 14th
Rollout: It will take up to two weeks to fully roll out
Targets: It targets both sites buying links, and sites used for the purpose of passing outgoing links.
Penalty: This will “neutralize” links that it detects as being spam and thus links that are detected won’t be counted and may show a decline in rankings.
Not a manual action: This is not a manual action, so you won’t be notified in Search Console if you are hit.
Global and all languages: This is a global launch and affects all languages.
SpamBrain: This is the first time Google is using its AI-based spam detection, i.e., SpamBrain, for link spam purposes.
SEO Chatter
Here is some of the public chatter from the forums, Twitter and comments area here that I found on this update:
The comments in those forums just keep going on and on.
Via Twitter:
Via @chy_ayon:
Some polls:
Google Tracking Tools
Check out what the tools are showing since Wednesday, December 14th:
So this update, in my opinion, seems pretty significant for those who did any link-building of sorts.
Forum discussion at Twitter, WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.
