Google December Spam Update 2022: Everything You Need to Know

Google has been coming out with a lot of algorithm updates lately, keeping webmasters as well as marketers on their toes. On December 14, 2022, it came out with Google December Spam Update.

Since a lot of business owners are worried about recent link spam updates and wondering how long it will take to recover from them, we decided to share everything significant about December 2022 spam update.

Let’s get started with our Google December algorithm update blog!

Google December 2022 spam update

What’s Google December 2022 Spam Update?

The most important things you need to know about the Google December 2022 spam are listed below:

  • The update was named Google December 2022 Spam Update.
  • It started to roll out on December 14 and took almost 2 weeks to finish.
  • The targets of this update are the websites buying links for SEO mileage and sites used for the purpose of passing outgoing links.
  • This update will “neutralize” links that it detects as being spam under Google’s spam detection.
  • This action is not manually done by google. So, there won’t be any notification on your Search  Console if your website is affected.
  • The December Link Spam Update affected all languages.
  • In this update, Google – for the first time – used its AI-powered spam detection, SpamBrain, for recognizing spam links.

If you have been indulging in link spam and other barred SEO tactics, this is your queue to review Google’s spam policies and change your link-building strategy.

Request Google core update checkup for fast recovery

How to know if your website was hit by December 2022 spam update?

While there won’t be any notification in your Search Console about getting hit with December 2022 Spam update, you can get an idea from the Search Console and Analytics data of your website.

If your website traffic and rankings have been affected after 15 December, there’s a fair chance that your website came under the radar of this Google update or Google’s Helpful content update.

If your website performed strongly in the late December days (like a lot of our SEO clients), you have benefited from Google’s recent spam update or Helpful content update.

December Spam Update 2022 Impact 

If SEO community on Twitter is to be believed, the impact of December Google update has been milder. There hasn’t be much hue and cry about drop in rankings and traffic.

December 2022 Spam update Impact

Check out this thread to discover opinions and thoughts on the last Google update of 2022.

How to recover from December 2022 spam update

Staying in line with Google’s spam and SEO guidelines is very important to grow your search positions in the long run. Below are the tips you can use to recover from December 2022 spam update:

Understand the purpose of the update:

While planning to recover from the Google spam update, it is best to first understand the purpose of the update. This update was rolled out to check spam links. So, make sure your website doesn’t have any spammy content links or page links on it. 

December 2022 Spam update

Identify the problem

The first step is to try to understand what caused your website to be negatively impacted by the update. This may involve conducting an audit of your website backlinks to identify problematic ones. Use Ahrefs or SEMrush to download your backlinks profile. Run a manual check and look for toxic links.

If you have paid for backlinks in the past, you must have a list or email trail with you. Start with that.  This is the first step to recover from December Link Spam Update 2022!

Make necessary changes

Once you have created the list of spammy and paid links, you can start the process of link removal. Email the sites to which you have paid for backlinks. Disvow the backlinks that are spammy in nature. While Google says that it ignores the spammy or toxic links, the best practice is to get those backlinks removed from your backlinks profile.

Check on your competitors

If your business is affected by the Google spam update, then, it simply means your competitors are earning the traffic you have lost. Run keyword research and find out which competitors are now ranking above your business. This will help them figure out what they did right.

google spam update
Google spam update

Monitor your progress

As you make changes to your website to recover from December Link Spam Update 2022, it’s important to monitor your progress to see if the changes are having the desired effect. Use tools like Google Analytics to track your website’s traffic and performance and make any additional changes as needed.

Be patient 

Recovering from a negative impact on your website’s search engine rankings can take time.  December Spam Update 2022 has triggered major fluctuations for some industries. So, it’s important to be patient and continue to make improvements to your website as needed. 

Recover from Google algorithm updates

We hope that the above post will help you learn everything about Google’s December 2022 spam update. If your business is facing less traffic after the update, it is best to consult SEO experts to run a thorough checkup and create an action plan. Learn about our SEO services in India.

Have queries to ask? Drop them in the comments to get a quick reply from our team of experts.

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