Did you notice a significant change in rankings at the back end of 2021 and are wondering what caused it? If so, chances are it’s related to the November 2021 spam update. We take a look at what Google classes as spam and how to avoid being hit by any future link related algorithm updates.
Google spent large portions of 2021 tweaking their algorithm to counter web spam and prevent it from ranking high in search results, and this was the fourth update related to this issue. The link spam update further focused on weeding out harmful or dubious websites, while also filtering out sites that add limited or no value to users.
With feedback from a team of manual fact and quality checkers, Google engineers identify common themes and attributes that should be flagged as spam and tweak their algorithm to suppress this content. Typical characteristics of a page that might be suppressed due to spam may be:
As outlined above, this includes making sure your content is original, clean, readable and isn’t using any black-hat SEO strategies. Whilst Google hasn’t specifically commented about what they are looking out for in this spam update, they have said that they are dealing with content that doesn’t follow their guidelines, and they encourage sites to follow their best practices for search.
As part of our regular work to improve results, we've released a spam update to our systems. This November 2021 spam update should be fully rolled out within a week. We encourage sites to follow our best practices for Search: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) November 3, 2021
Spam updates deal with content that doesn't follow our guidelines.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 4, 2021
Core updates are simply an adjustment to how we assess content overall.
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Public Liaison for Search, hinted that this update shouldn’t affect content that follows Google’s rules and guidelines. They are generally looking out for harmful, dubious or exploitative sites.
You should focus on producing original and engaging pages that offer value to the search terms you are targeting and follows Google’s Webmaster guidelines.
Look at creating content that is more than just text on a page, as this is what you might expect from spammy sites. You should be as innovative as possible with pages. Include images, videos, tables as well as rich content such as reviews or FAQs. Your goal should be to improve readability and engagement from users and customers. Better rankings will come as a result of this.
Dedicate time to improving your technical SEO, and use tools and software such as Screaming Frog to find broken links, dead ends, orphan pages and more.
Finally, have a review of your pages link structure. Make sure you don’t have too many external links and make sure external links you do have are properly labelled with ‘rel’. You should also be careful with the amount of sponsored content or advertisements on your site. Whilst these may bring you income short term, they may harm your rankings long term.
There are a number of ways to check if you have been penalised:
Google Search Console - have you seen a sharp decrease in rankings for search terms since November? In some cases, Google may remove sites from search results completely.
Check your Traffic – If you don’t have Google Search Console setup, check site traffic. Have you seen an unusual drop off in traffic that doesn’t match trends of previous years?
Review your backlink profile – Finally, you can use technical SEO tools such as Majestic to review your backlink profile. Do you see any dubious or spammy sites linking to you? A quick way to tell is to look at any with a low Trust Flow score.
Google’s spam updates can often sound very technical and confusing to some, but the main takeaway is to make sure on-page content is clean, relevant and gives value to a search query. Google’s algorithm always priorities a strong UX. This should be complemented with engaging, killer content.
If you have any concerns about your backlink profile or you have seen a drop in your rankings, then get in touch with the helpful SEO team here at Blue Frontier. Our technical SEO experts will be happy to review and assess pages on your site that you feel may have been harmed by the latest link spam updates. We can give you recommendations on how to improve page rankings, help you implement the changes and optimise your website to drive more organic traffic.
Digital Marketing Executive
Matt joined the Blue Frontier digital team in 2021 as a digital marketing executive. He specialises in SEO and PPC having previously worked at an eCommerce company working primarily on email marketing, PPC and marketplace management. Matt manages SEO and PPC projects for a variety of our clients, working closely with them to understand their needs and creating tailored strategies to fit their goals. He is a proactive worker who never shies away from a challenge. He very much enjoys learning new skills within digital marketing as well as polishing up old ones.
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