Update: Google November 2021 Spam Update Has Been Fully Rolled Out
Google’s November 2021 Spam Update, which started rolling out on 3 November 2021, has now finished rolling out completely, as confirmed by Google in a tweet. It took about 8 days to complete so, which is slightly longer than what Google Updates usually take to complete. The full impact of the update is yet to be measured and evaluated. However, if your traffic and rankings took a hit in the last 10 days or so, it is best that you take a good, hard look at your content strategy, because Google did suggest, though not officially, that this update targeted content spam and not link spam specifically.
As confirmed by Google, yet another Spam Update is currently being rolled out by Google. While Google didn’t mention what kind of spam it is targeting this time around, some believe it is specifically targeting Cloaked Spam Content with Injected Links. Google’s Danny Sullivan, on the other hand, tweeted that the update deals with content that doesn’t follow Google’s Guidelines. The update started rolling out on November 3, 2021 and will take about a week to complete, which should be in a day or two. We will keep you updated as and when its completion is confirmed by Google.
The November 2021 Spam Update now bring the total number of Spam Updates in this year to whopping 4, with 2 Core Updates (or one big Core Update split into 2). That is a lot of updates. And there is still a good month and a half to go before 2022 arrives. Another Core Update? We shall see.
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://t.co/jK3ArQmTqT
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) November 3, 2021
Spam updates deal with content that doesn't follow our guidelines.
Core updates are simply an adjustment to how we assess content overall.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 4, 2021
What is the purpose of these Spam Updates?
These Spam Updates from Google keep the search results spam-free as many as 99% of the times. If stats are to be trusted, Google’s automated systems kept nearly 25 billion spammy pages from being indexed, every friggin’ day. Websites that follow Google’s Webmaster Guidelines have nothing to worry about. But that is not to mean that your website can’t be reprimanded still, however slim the chances. If your website is found to be guilty, even if involuntarily breaking one or more of its guidelines, you could see drop in traffic and rankings and even be penalized for it. So for safety’s sake, keep a close eye on traffic on your website and if see massive drops or see changes from your organic search results, it ‘might’ be related to this Spam Update. To Google, it’s all the same, whether it is intentional misconduct or unintentional mistakes.
If it dropped right after we shared about a particular update, look at the guidance we gave about that update. Sometimes, it will be any improvements help for the next round. But we also have lots of small updates and regular ranking changes all the time.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 4, 2021
I’m seeing huge drops in traffic since the update hit? What should I do?
Wait it out. Wait it out till there is a confirmation from Google on November 2021 Spam Update Rollout completion. Let your website settle in a bit and then re-evaluate the results. If you still feel you’ve been hard done by this update and that your traffic and rankings simply isn’t what it used to be before this update hit, it’s time to take some immediate action and work on the issues both glaring and unseen. You can check out your website’s health on Search Console and while doing so if you find it has been penalized for not following the norms, you can contact us any time and we will take it from there. The usual drill: run a comprehensive website audit, and isolate the issues and work on them one by one.
In the meanwhile, you can check out 10 STEPS TO IMPROVE YOUR SERP RANKINGS IN 2020 WITHOUT BEING PENALIZED BY GOOGLE: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE.
We will update you further as soon as there is an update from Google. Until then!
