Rolling out now is Google's December 2022 Link Spam Update From 42 Networks

Rolling out now is Google's December 2022 Link Spam Update From 42 Networks - On December 14, Google will begin rolling out their link spam upgrade for December 2022. It could take two weeks to finish.

The December 2022 link spam upgrade, which Google says is rolling out now and might take up to two weeks to finish, has been updated to better detect spam.

What Is In The Link Spam Update For December 2022?

With the capacity to locate sponsored links and identify domains primarily used to transmit links to other websites, Google is updating its spam detection algorithm.

The December 2022 link spam upgrade eliminates unnatural links by using Google's AI-based SpamBrain spam-prevention system.

In addition to immediately detecting spam, Google claims SpamBrain can now recognize websites used for link building and websites that buy connections.

Will My Site Be Affected by the December 2022 Link Spam Update?

According 42 Networks, Google warns that rankings could change as a result of the December 2022 link spam upgrade, which would remove any signals sent to the linking domain by unnatural links and neutralize them.

All languages' search results are impacted by this upgrade, which could have a significant effect.

What matters is how you build links and how you connect out to other sites, which will determine whether this update has an impact on your website.

To improve search ranks, Google has strong policies against acquiring links. Google also has rules for acceptable links that are forwarded to other websites.

For instance, you must qualify an affiliate link with a rel=sponsored tag if you include it within a body of text.

If affiliate links are not properly tagged, the link spam update may target your website.

Additionally, you must include rel=nofollow to links in guest articles to avoid further issues with Google.

It's unlikely that the December 2022 link spam upgrade will have a negative effect on you if you adhere to Google's best practices for incoming and outgoing links.

Google: Links are no longer as influential as they once were.

In a Google SEO office hours video from 42 Networks website, a Googler responded to a question concerning backlinks and ranks by mentioning the intriguing fact that backlinks no longer have as much of an influence as they once did as a ranking indication.

Rank Signal from Backlinks

When Google was initially released, links and anchor text signals made it a better search engine than the opposition.

Title, header, and content optimization with keywords used to be the main focus of SEO.

After Google gained popularity, it was understood that links were essential for improving ranks.

Web directories and link selling brokers are only two examples of entire companies that arose to meet the need for links.

In addition, several link-building strategies emerged, including forum spam, comment spam, and reciprocal linking.

The battle against link spam was mostly lost by Google. The Penguin algorithm's release in 2012, together with other changes to Google's infrastructure (Hummingbird), which allowed Google to do increasingly large amounts of link-related ranking functions, marked a turning point.

We have reached a point where Google can rank links so that low-quality links are ignored.

Although links are still a significant ranking element, it is unclear how much weight they currently carry.

Recently, John Mueller opined that links may start to have a smaller influence in ranking, saying:

"It's something where I imagine, over time, the weight on the links will at some point drop down a little bit as we can figure out a little bit better how the information fits in within the context of the entire web," the author continued.

Backlinks Are No Longer as Important

It's surprising to hear a Google employee claim that links are no longer as important as they once were because it goes against what was previously believed.

The intensity of the link signal is being compared to when Google initially started, which is maybe the most important thing to keep in mind.

The comment about links was made in response to a query about whether link building activities are permitted and whether Google still uses backlinks.

The query is this:

"Given that link building campaigns are prohibited, why does Google still use backlinks as a ranking factor?

Why can't Google discover more ranking variables like backlinks that are difficult to manipulate?

Google's response:

There are a lot of things here to unpack.

Was, compared to when Google Search first launched many years ago, backlinks as a signal have far less of an impact.

To ensure that we can rank the most pertinent and helpful results for all queries, we have hundreds of robust ranking signals.

That is undoubtedly true; links today have significantly less influence than they did when Google first launched, mostly because fewer types of connections (such as paid links and directory links) have the power to affect search rankings.

It's not clear if the Googler was referring to other types of links besides those that still matter.

The Googler went on to say on 42 Network Web :

"Second, entire link building programs, which in line with our spam policy are effectively link spam.

We have numerous algorithms that can identify and remove unnatural links at scale.

Since it's quite likely that they're just wasting money creating all these spammy links, and since our algorithms already eliminate them as soon as we discover them, spammers or SEOs spending money on links literally have no way of knowing if the money they spent on link building was actually worth it or not.