The Google October 2022 spam update that started to roll out on October 19, 2022, at around 11 am ET, is now complete less than 48 hours after it began. The update finished rolling out on October 21, 2022, at around 5 am ET.
The announcement. Google quietly updated the search updates page adding “Released the October 2022 spam update. This update is global and affects all languages. The rollout was complete as of October 21, 2022.“
The part added was bolded above and reads “The rollout was complete as of October 21, 2022.”
What are spam updates. Google wrote:
“While Google’s automated systems to detect search spam are constantly operating, we occasionally make notable improvements to how they work. When we do, we refer to this as a spam update and share when they happen on our list of Google Search ranking updates. For example, SpamBrain is our AI-based spam-prevention system. From time-to-time, we improve that system to make it better at spotting spam and to help ensure it catches new types of spam. Sites that see a change after a spam update should review our spam policies to ensure they are complying with those. Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all. Making changes may help a site improve if our automated systems learn over a period of months that the site complies with our spam policies.”
Previous updates. Before this, the most recent confirmed Google spam update was the November 2021 spam update. Google also released a two-part Spam Update – on June 23 and June 28 in 2021, as well as the July 2021 link spam update.
Note, the November 2021 spam update took 8 days to fully roll out.
Why we care. If you notice large ranking or traffic changes from your organic Google search results, you may have been hit by this spam update. Spam updates target specific guideline violations. This update may have been more focused on content spam efforts. Check your rankings and Google organic traffic over the past week to see if you noticed any big changes to your positions.
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Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.
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