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Google released the October 2023 Spam Update to combat spam in search results and improve user experience.
The primary objective of the October 2023 Spam Update is to provide users with more useful and relevant search results, ensuring a better and more satisfying internet search experience while combating various forms of spam across multiple languages like Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi, Chinese, and more.
Google’s community members’ feedback impacted the company’s decision to roll out this update. When searching in their mother tongues, several users noticed increased bogus results. As a result, Google is improving its spam detection skills.
About the Spam Update in Google
Google has implemented a system to combat spam on its platform, including automated tools and human assessments to identify and penalise pages and sites violating its regulations.
One of the tools, SpamBrain, utilises artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect emerging spam techniques. To maintain high-quality results, Google regularly releases updates. If the new spam filters have impacted your website, reviewing and adhering to Google’s standards is advisable to avoid additional penalties.
What Qualifies as Spam in Google’s Eyes?
Google lists what it bans in the documentation for its spam policy. Google penalises content that it deems to be deceptive or spammy.
- Text and links concealed from users but detectable by search engines.
- Material that is automatically created and offers users little to no extra value.
- Large-scale unlicensed article scraping.
- Pages with a lot of annoying advertising make for a bad user experience.
- Affiliate pages with little content were primarily concerned with revenue.
Google can classify a website as spam if it cloaks, redirects, or creates “doorway” pages. This is due to the deliberate attempt to deceive search engines. As a result, the website may need help.
According to Google’s policies, aggressive sales tactics such as making false claims or misrepresenting products or services are discouraged.
Websites should prioritise providing users with an honest, transparent, and trustworthy experience. It is important to maintain this even after spam updates.
Looking Forward: Google’s Ongoing Efforts for a Cleaner Web
According to Google, their October 2023 Spam Update will take a few weeks to affect their search index fully. In the meantime, they are encouraging users to continue using their spam reporting tool to provide feedback. Google credits searchers who report spam for helping them determine where to focus their anti-spam efforts. As technology evolves, Google’s approach to combating spam constantly changes.
