Spam Update

Written by Cobus van der Westhuizen, reviewed by Wynand van der Westhuizen, fact-checked by Lenata Oosthuizen. Last reviewed July 2026. Editorial policy.

What Is a Spam Update?

A Spam Update is a targeted Google algorithm release. It finds and penalises websites that use tactics which break Google's spam policies. Google began using the term "spam update" officially in 2021. Anti-spam systems such as Penguin (2012) performed similar functions years earlier.

These updates work alongside Google's automated SpamBrain system, which uses machine learning to detect manipulative behaviour at scale.

These updates target several common spam signals. They include unnatural link profiles (links bought in bulk or exchanged purely for ranking), cloaking (showing different content to Google than to users), doorway pages built only to rank for keyword variations, auto-generated thin content, and hidden text or links.

When Google's systems detect these patterns, the affected pages or whole domains may lose major rankings. Some are removed from the index entirely.

Spam Updates are usually global and affect all languages. Google sometimes releases updates that target specific forms of spam in certain languages or regions. The updates run periodically. So a site that cleaned up its spam may not see rankings recover until the detection system next processes that site.

For South African businesses working on SEO, staying clean of spam signals means a few things. Keep a natural backlink profile, publish original content, and avoid any shortcut that promises fast rankings through manipulative means. A single purchased link scheme or copied content network can put a site at serious risk when the next Spam Update runs.

Spam Update In Practice

Imagine a Gauteng e-commerce retailer that hired a link-building agency a few years ago. That agency placed hundreds of links on low-quality directories, foreign article farms, and private blog networks. For a time, rankings improved.

Then a Spam Update ran and Google's systems flagged the unnatural link pattern. The retailer's site dropped from page one to page four on its most valuable product terms almost overnight.

Recovery required a full backlink audit using Google Search Console and a third-party tool such as Ahrefs or Semrush.

The team identified the toxic backlinks. They tried to remove them by contacting site owners, and submitted a disavow file to Google for any links they could not remove.

Alongside the disavow work, they published fresh, original content. They also built genuine mentions through digital PR and guest posts on credible South African publications. Full recovery took roughly eight months. Google confirmed it after the next Spam Update cycle.

This scenario is common. It shows why long-term, ethical link building and original content remain the only sustainable path.

What a Google Spam Update is

A Google Spam Update is a periodic update to Google's systems that improves the detection and demotion of spam, that is, content and practices that violate Google's spam policies, so that spammy sites and pages are reduced in rankings and cleaner, legitimate results are surfaced. Google runs spam updates from time to time, often refreshing and strengthening its automated spam-fighting systems (such as SpamBrain, its AI-based spam detection), and announces the major ones. The kinds of practices spam updates target are those that breach Google's spam policies: automatically-generated content designed to manipulate rankings, cloaking and sneaky redirects, scraped content, thin content created purely for search engines, manipulative link schemes, hacked content, and other deceptive or manipulative behaviours. A site engaging in such practices, whether deliberately or through an SEO provider using them, can see its rankings drop when a spam update rolls out and its violations are detected. Spam updates differ from core updates: core updates broadly re-assess relevance and quality across the board, whereas spam updates specifically target policy-violating spam. Understanding spam updates matters because they enforce Google's spam policies, and being caught by one signals that a site has content or link practices that violate those policies and need to be identified and remedied.

Detecting and recovering from a spam update

Knowing whether a site has been affected by a spam update, and recovering if so, starts with the pattern of the drop. A sudden, significant ranking and traffic decline coinciding with an announced spam update, especially if the site has content or link practices that could breach Google's spam policies, points to being caught by the update. The route to recovery is to identify and fix the violations: reviewing the site against Google's spam policies to find what breaches them, whether auto-generated or scraped content, thin pages made only for search engines, manipulative or paid links that pass credit, cloaking, or other prohibited practices, and then removing or correcting them, cleaning up spammy content, disavowing or removing manipulative links, and bringing the site into genuine compliance. Because spam updates enforce policy, recovery depends on actually eliminating the spam, not on superficial tweaks, and it typically requires waiting for a subsequent update or re-assessment for the improvements to be recognised, so recovery is not instant. If the spam came from a previous SEO provider's tactics (such as bought links or automated content), those legacy practices must be found and undone. For a South African business hit by a spam update, the sound response is an honest audit against Google's spam policies, thorough remediation of any violations, and a commitment to legitimate, guideline-compliant SEO going forward, since sustainable recovery and future resilience come from operating within the policies rather than from continuing risky practices. Sites that were not engaging in spam are generally unaffected by spam updates, which is itself a reason to keep to legitimate practices.

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