Google December 2024 spam update unleashed

Google has unleashed a new search spam update today, the December 2024 spam update. “Released the December 2024 spam update, which applies globally and to all languages. The rollout may take up to 1 week to complete,” Google wrote.

Timing. Google said this update will take about one weeks to roll out.

The rollout is happening right before the holiday season, but it should not impact most sites, being that this only targets sites violating Google’s spam policies.

Plus, this comes a day after Google completed the December 2024 core update.

Spam updates. Google linked to its standard spam updates documentation that reads:

“While Google’s automated systems to detect search spam are constantly operating, we occasionally make notable improvements to how they work. When we do, we refer to this as a spam update and share when they happen on our list of Google Search ranking updates.

For example, SpamBrain is our AI-based spam-prevention system. From time-to-time, we improve that system to make it better at spotting spam and to help ensure it catches new types of spam.

Sites that see a change after a spam update should review our spam policies to ensure they are complying with those. Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all. Making changes may help a site improve if our automated systems learn over a period of months that the site complies with our spam policies.

In the case of a link spam update (an update that specifically deals with link spam), making changes might not generate an improvement. This is because when our systems remove the effects spammy links may have, any ranking benefit the links may have previously generated for your site is lost. Any potential ranking benefits generated by those links cannot be regained.”

Previous spam updates. The last spam update was on June 20, 2024 and was named June 2024 spam update, it completed on June 27.

Here’s our past coverage of confirmed Google spam updates:

• June 2024 spam update
• March 2024 spam update
• October 2023 spam update
• December 2022 link spam update
• October 2022 spam update 
• November 2021 spam update
• July 2021 link spam update.
• A two-part Spam Update – June 23 and June 28

Why we care. This is the 7th Google search algorithm update we had in 2024, including four core updates and now three spam updates. Also, this being released right before the holidays is not going to make most of you happy.

It is unclear exactly what type of spam this targets but if you notice any ranking changes over the coming week, it might be related to this spam update.