Google's Helpful Content & Link Spam Updates Summary

Finally, HCU & Spam rolled out last week. [Thursday, January 12, 2023]

Two updates were delayed because of holidays. Google also there was a security issue with completing them on the holidays, so they took a pause.

HCU (Helpful Content Update):

-> Started on December 5, 2023 and was completed rolling out about 38 days afterward.

-> It looks at content that was created to rank well in search over help humans

-> Currently impacts on Google Search only.

-> This one is site wide algorithm, so the whole website will be impacted by this update.

-> If any website were hit by this update, then we will need to look at our website content and see if we can do better.

Link Spam Update:

-> Started on December 14, 2022, and was completed 29 days later.

-> First time Google is using its AI-based spam detection

-> It targets both sites buying links, and sites used for the purpose of passing outgoing links.

-> If spam links detected won't be counted asnd may show decline in Rankings.

-> If a website is hit by this update, you may not get any notification on GSC.

-> It affects all languages.