Google has begun deploying its June 2024 spam update, designed to enhance search results by targeting websites that violate its spam policies.
The update, which started on June 20, is expected to take up to one week to fully roll out. Google’s Search Liaison emphasized that this update is not the algorithmic part of the site reputation abuse update, which has yet to be released. A separate announcement will be made when that happens.
In a statement, Google’s Search Liaison said, “For the third time now, I’ll say again, I have every confidence that when we’re acting on site reputation abuse algorithmically, we’ll say that. It’s not right now. I also won’t be responding to this particular question every week so maybe let it go a month between asking.”
Google frequently updates its algorithms to reduce the presence of low-quality and spammy content in search results. These spam updates focus on websites that violate Google’s rules, such as:
- Automatically generating content solely for search ranking purposes.
- Buying or selling links to manipulate rankings.
- Publishing thin, duplicated, or low-quality content.
- Deceiving users with hidden redirects or other misleading techniques.
The previous spam update was released in March, targeting numerous spammy websites. Despite this, some AI-generated content still managed to perform well in search results. Analysis by Roger Montti from Search Engine Journal revealed that certain AI spam sites ranked for over 217,000 queries, with more than 14,900 appearing in the top 10 search results. These sites utilized tactics like rapid content production, AI-generated images, and templated article structures, exploiting a loophole that gave new content a temporary ranking boost.
