Good morning, Search Marketer, we have a new Google algorithm update to talk about again this week — the link spam update.
If you thought Google was done with all these algorithm updates, you thought wrong. Google launched yet another algorithm update aimed at "nullifying" link spam. So if you or your clients were doing any spammy links and you see a drop in rankings over the next couple of weeks, it might be related to this new algorithm update.
I should note, Google used the word "nullify" for a reason. Nullify does not necessarily mean "penalize," but instead, to ignore or simply not count. Google's efforts around link spam have been to ignore and not count spammy links since Penguin 4.0 was released in 2016. But ignoring a signal that may have helped you rank initially might feel like a penalty — keep that in mind.
So far, we are not seeing too many complaints about the link spam update but we will keep you posted.
Barry Schwartz,
Link spam reporter