The Google Spam Update: These are the SEO Dos and Don’ts
Recently, Google made a major change to its search algorithm to combat “spammy” content and reward websites that provided useful, high-quality content. This update, dubbed the “Google Spam Update”, has been a game-changer for many businesses, resulting in wide swings in traffic and rankings.
On October 19, 2022, Google announced plans to roll out a global spam update to Google Search that would affect all languages.
The Google Spam Update is now complete. So it is now or never to have your content user-friendly, helpful and useful. If not, your website will suffer the consequences.
Why does Google want to do this? Because if a user consistently clicks on spammy results, it produces a bad experience and causes them to stop using Google. Now that is bad for Google and its users.
Here’s what you need to know about the Google Spam update and how it can affect your website.
Table of contents
What is the Google Spam Update?
In short, the Google Spam Update is a change to the way Google ranks websites in its search results. What is the focus of this update?
The update from Google is all about delivering useful, helpful content to users.
The update means that the Google algorithm favors websites that provide valuable information and discourage those who use spammy tactics, such as keyword stuffing or buying links.
Before this update, sites that were heavy on keywords and light on useful content could still rank highly in Google searches.
This update has had a major impact on many businesses, especially those in competitive industries. If you’ve noticed a drop in traffic or rankings recently, it’s likely due to this update.
Following SEO best practices, like creating quality content and building natural, legitimate backlinks, can help bring your website to the top of google’s search results.
In the end, Google’s goal is to weed out those who try to cheat their way to the top and provide the most helpful results to users.
So focus on creating high-quality content for your reader or user rather than trying to trick Google’s algorithm – it will pay off in the long run.
What are some issues for you to know about with Google’s Spam Update?
Many leading SEO experts, including our in-house team, concur on three specific issues.
These three issues will put your website in the crosshairs of the update. In fact, we are almost certain that these issues will have your website penalized.
Superficial content
Superficial content is sometimes referred to thin content. What do we mean by superficial content?
Superficial or thin content can be long or short in word count and does not provide any value to the user or reader.
In essence, the information was superficial, and once you are done reading it, you have gained no new ideas or any useful information.
Keyword stuffing
Did you know that keyword stuffing is still a thing? We would have thought that many content producers would have learned this is not on by now.
Keywords should be used in a natural way that is to the benefit of the reader or user. In other words, do not stuff keywords for search as your primary goal.
Whether it was in their content on meta tags, do not use keywords excessively, which makes for a terrible reading experience!
Terrible meta tags
Take time to craft unique and readable meta tags. If you are doing the copy-and-paste way, your website will suffer!
Whatever you do, do not duplicate meta tags! Worse still, don’t simply create them for search engines.
There must also be the relevance of the meta tag to the content it represents. So, don’t try to be clickbaity with your meta tags. Keep them real!
How to Recover from the Google Spam Update
If your website was hit hard by the Google Spam update, don’t despair! There are some steps you can take to recover from the drop in traffic and rankings. Here is what you need to do:
First, take a close look at your website’s content
Is it truly useful and informative? If not, make some changes! Add new content or revise existing content to be more helpful to your readers or users.
Second, focus on building backlinks from high-quality websites
Backlinks act as digital “votes” for your website and can help improve your rankings. However, not all backlinks are created equal; links from low-quality websites will actually harm your rankings. So, only pursue backlinks from websites that are relevant to your industry and have a good reputation.
Third, keep an eye on your website’s analytics
Analytics will help you identify any further dips in traffic or rankings and take action accordingly. By monitoring your website closely and making adjustments as needed, you can ensure that your website recovers fully from the Google Spam update and continues to perform well in the future.
What are the DOs and DON’Ts to succeed with the Google Spam Update?
Google’s spam update is here and now! As we mentioned, the update is designed to penalize sites with thin or low-quality content and reward sites with more useful and informative content.
Here are some dos and don’ts for the Google Spam Update:
| DOs | DONTs |
|---|---|
| Use keywords naturally throughout your content, and focus on providing quality information instead of worrying about keyword density. | Have keywords inserted unnaturally in your copy. |
| Create informative, well-written, and user-friendly content. | Copy others’ content! |
| Refresh thin or unuseful content | Keyword stuff your content and meta tags. |
| Write for your audience first and foremost. | Focus too much on SEO at the expense of user experience. |
| Break your content up into smaller paragraphs with headlines. | Use AI content without humanizing it. |
| Make it easier for users to scan your content and find the information they want. | Write superficial or useless content that provides no value to the user or reader! |
| Help search engines understand the structure of your page so they can index your content properly. | Leave your page with no structure and now H1, H2, H3, etc. |
| Include images, videos, and other visual elements in your posts. | Have a page with no images! |
| Break up the text and make your content more visually appealing. | Write in huge chunks of text that will be hard for the reader to read. |
| Include relevant keywords in your image tags so that your images are correctly indexed by search engines. | Have no image tags, |
| Utilize credible external sources to add credibility to your data or claims. Work on getting natural, high-quality backlinks for your web pages. | Provide no source for your data or claims, |
Final thoughts
The Google Spam Update is done and dusted. So now is the time to review your website’s content and ensure that it meets Google’s new standards.
Focus on creating informative, well-written, user-friendly content that is easy to read and navigate.
Utilize external sources to add credibility to claims, and include images and videos to break up the text.
Most importantly, don’t sacrifice quality for the sake of SEO—focus on providing a good user experience first and foremost.
The Google Spam Update has been a major shakeup for the online world, affecting both businesses and individuals alike.
Utilize the tips our expert team has given you to stay ahead of the Google Spam Update. If you’ve noticed a drop in traffic or rankings, you can take the aforementioned steps to recover.
Need help? Our team can help you focus on producing high-quality content and building backlinks from reputable websites. We can ensure that your website bounces back stronger than ever before!
What else can you keep driving traffic to your website?
In any competitive market, getting quality traffic to your website is not easy. We have some great blogs you can read that will help you drive traffic like never before:
- Perfect Your Email Marketing Strategy Now
- What Are The Top Ppc Ideas You Ought To Know?
- Social Media Strategies: Successful Ones You Can Learn From
- Helpful Content Tips: Get Noticed Before The Competition
- 6 Easy Digital Marketing Hacks To Increase Your Leads
If you are a time-strapped entrepreneur, you may not have time to do digital marketing. If this is the case, we encourage you to review some of our strategic digital marketing services to drive more sales and quality web traffic:
- SEO for your business to drive qualified leads
- Social media management for improved brand awareness
- Linkbuilding to drive organic traffic to your website
- Top converting landing pages to convert your leads
- Email marketing campaigns to bring in referrals
