On the 14th of December, Google rolled out an update which utilises its AI-Based Spam Protection system (SpamBrain).

This helps to detect spam directly, but also it can detect websites that have purchased backlinks for SEO gain and also detect link farm websites.

Many clients had purchased backlinks when I started working in SEO, along with other techniques, such as hiding multiple links in white text on a white background. Google grew wise to these tactics and would penalise websites that had links from low-ranking domains/link farms.

This update which Google refers to as “December 2022 link spam update”, is another push in the right direction to stop people from benefiting from paid backlinks.

The update will take around two weeks to roll out fully. This may impact your organic rankings if any credits from spam websites currently benefit your website.

Think of a backlink as a vote of confidence to Google. Google want to provide the most relevant and genuine information to its users.

If your website had a backlink from the BBC, which has a high domain name ranking, you would benefit from this as a vote of confidence.

Currently, spam backlinks are benefiting websites, and this is set out to try and level the playing field for genuine backlinks.

Google noted in the update that – “ links obtained primarily for artificial manipulation of Search rankings are link spam”.

You can view the full article here – https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/12/december-22-link-spam-update

If you are worried about backlinks pointing to your website. Please request a free SEO health audit, and we will check your backlink profile if you have any concerns about your website.