The Essentials of Google’s Link Spam Update
February 16, 2023 | By Ilfusion Team
Last December 2022, Google announced that they are implementing an update to their link spam algorithm to improve their search quality and overall user experience.
Essentially, the update aims to combat manipulative link-building practices that are used to gain an unfair advantage in search engine rankings.
While marketers and webmasters who practice safe link-building strategies shouldn’t be worried, it’s still important to understand the update and how it could potentially affect your website.
What Is Google’s Link Spam Update?
What makes this update to Google’s link spam algorithms different from earlier updates is that they’re now leveraging an AI tool called SpamBrain. SpamBrain is designed to detect and take action against websites that are engaging in link spam practices.
SpamBrain also goes beyond identifying specific link-building practices. It can also detect any website that has a large number of links from poor-quality sources and websites that are only linking out to other websites.
Additionally, SpamBrain can identify unnatural link patterns. For example, if a website has an excessive number of outgoing links in a short time frame or if it’s linking to websites that are unrelated to its topic.
What Are Examples of Unsafe Link-Building Practices?
Link-building practices that could be affected by the link spam update include:
- Buying links: Purchasing links from websites for the purpose of increasing rankings.
- Excessive link exchanges: Linking to another website when there’s no real reason to do so.
- Link networks: Websites that are part of an interconnected network of links for the purpose of manipulating rankings.
- Spammy directories: Link farms that provide no real value to users.
- Comment spam: Adding links in blog comments with the purpose of manipulating rankings.
What Does This Mean for Marketers and Webmasters?
One of the main challenges of the link spam update is that it’s not considered a manual action. This means that if Google detects that a website is engaging in link spam practices, there’s no way for the webmaster to be notified on Search Console.
Penalties include a devaluation of the ranking power of each link and a decrease in overall rankings. But if you’re not engaging in any manipulative link-building practices, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
The key takeaway here is that webmasters and marketers should focus on building natural links from high-quality sources.
How Do I Prepare My Site for the Link Spam Update?
It’s important to be proactive when it comes to preparing your website for the link spam update. Here are a few tips to help you get started:
1. Audit your link profile
Make sure that all of your links are coming from reputable sources and that none of them are linked to websites engaging in link spam practices.
Some of the helpful tools you can use to audit your link profile are:
- Google Analytics
- Moz’s Link Explorer
- Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker
2. Monitor your incoming links
Keep an eye on the websites linking to you and make sure they’re legitimate and relevant. The same tools mentioned above can be used to monitor your incoming links.
If you find any suspicious websites linking to your website, use Google’s Disavow Tool to remove them from the index. To disavow links, simply go to the Disavow Links section of Google Search Console and submit your disavow file.
3. Create high-quality content
Creating quality content is one of the most important things you can do to prepare your website for the link spam update. Focus on creating content that’s useful and relevant to your target audience.
It’s also important to implement natural link-building tactics. Internal linking is the best way to achieve this. It’s essentially just linking to other pages on your website. This can be other related blog posts, a product page, or even a resource page.
External linking is also an effective way to build natural links. But don’t just link out to any website; make sure you’re linking to high-quality and relevant sources.
Improve Your Overall SEO Strategy
Your SEO strategy should be evolving all the time, and the link spam update is yet another reason why making sure your website is optimized for search engines is important.
For a more comprehensive approach, it’s also important to keep an eye on the other updates and changes Google is making to its search algorithm. However, doing so can be difficult to keep up with, especially if you’re still new to the industry.
Working with a digital marketing agency like Ilfusion can help you stay on top of the latest trends and updates in search engine optimization. We can also help you create an effective SEO strategy that’s tailored to your website’s specific needs and goals.
To know more about what we can do for you, just give us a call at 888-420-5115, or send us an email at [email protected].
