Google Link Spam Update July 2021.
A new Google algorithm update that will aim at spam links will is rolling out right now. What will be the core of that update and what website’s will be affected?
On 26th July 2021, Google announced a new update concerning spam links. According to Duy Nguyen – a Google search quality analyst, the change is going to be wide and include many languages.
So what’s the new spam links update about?
Google wrote “in our continued efforts to improve the quality of the search results, we’re launching a new link spam fighting change today — which we call the “link spam update.” This algorithm update, which will rollout across the next two weeks, is even more effective at identifying and nullifying link spam more broadly, across multiple languages. Sites taking part in link spam will see changes in Search as those links are re-assessed by our algorithms.”
The latest update’s job is to identify spam links and ignore those in the evaluation of the website they lead to. It means that a website that has many low-quality back links won’t be penalised, but instead, all those links will be ignored. However, in fact, this may cause such website’s to lose their ranks in search results. It’s the continuation of the approach brought to the Google search engine by Penguin 4.0.
“In our continued efforts to improve the quality of the search results, we’re launching a new link spam fighting change today — which we call the “link spam update.” This algorithm update, which will rollout across the next two weeks, is even more effective at identifying and nullifying link spam more broadly, across multiple languages. Sites taking part in link spam will see changes in Search as those links are re-assessed by our algorithms”.
Guidelines for the linking process remain the same:
Affiliate links are ok. In other words, if someone willingly places your link on their website for commercial purposes – that’s perfectly fine. Google encourages to tag such links with rel=”sponsored” attribute.
Sponsored links and guest posts are also fine unless they violate link scheme guidelines.
What not to do:
> Don’t buy links transferring PageRank – in general, don’t buy links that are not sponsored posts, it won’t pay off.
> Don’t go for large-scale link exchanges (“I’ll link to your site, you’ll link to mine” thing. A few such links won’t affect your website, but don’t go all-in for that tactic.
> Don’t overdo links in sponsored and guest posts, be especially careful with anchors. One link is totally enough.
> Don’t use automated link creators.
> Don’t require a link as a part of a Terms of Service, contract, or other cooperation of this kind, especially when not allowing third-party to qualify the outbound link.
If you see ranking declines in Google over the next two weeks, it might be related to this new link spam update. Make sure your links are natural and in accordance with Google’s webmaster guidelines. Work on improving your website, so it can naturally attract new links over time.
