Link Spam Update -December 14, 2022

Link Spam Update -December 14, 2022

Google started carrying out a modified link spam update on December 14, 2022, named the December 2022 link spam update..

This update is new in that it utilizes SpamBrain AI to “detect both sites buying links, and sites used for the purpose of passing outgoing links,” and not just “detect spam directly,” Google said. SpamBrain is AI-based spam-prevention system. From time-to-time, it improve that system to make it better at spotting spam and to help ensure it catches new types of spam.

The update will take up to two weeks to roll out and started rolling out a week after Google started the December 2022 helpful content update, which is not yet done rolling out.

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.

SpamBrain Link Spam Detection Upgrade

So what is new here is that this is not just a spam update but how SpamBrain uses AI to detect link spam. Google wrote, like I said above, “SpamBrain is our AI-based spam-prevention system. Besides using it to detect spam directly, it can now detect both sites buying links, and sites used for the purpose of passing outgoing links.”

Google added, “As we have always emphasized, links obtained primarily for artificial manipulation of Search rankings are link spam. Our algorithms and manual actions aim to nullify these unnatural links at scale, and we will continue to improve our coverage.”

Google later clarified that this is the first time Google is using SpamBrain for link spam detection: