Google publishes its annual report on the fight against spam

Google's latest annual report on anti-spam policies has just been released! If you haven't had time to read it, at Línea Gráfica we have made a summary in which we highlight the most relevant points and reflect on how necessary it is to have experts who know how to choose links or write content so as not to be penalized by Google. Let's get started! Here are the highlights of the report.

SpamBrain Optimization and Improvement

SpamBrain is the tool that Google developed in 2018 and that has not stopped updating until today. SpamBrain uses artificial intelligence and its objective is to locate Spam . And what does the Google report say about it? In the report, they clarify how SpamBrain has managed to ensure that users have a safe search experience. Thanks to the tool, 99% of searches in 2022 have been spam-free , which means that users have been able to access relevant and reliable content more easily.

Spotting malicious links with SpamBrain

Part of Google's improvements in 2022 has been training SpamBrain to quickly locate links that are malicious . The report discusses how SpamBrain has been essential in finding websites created with the sole purpose of passing spam links to other pages. It is important to note that low-quality links can have a negative impact on a website's search engine ranking. Therefore, as SEO experts, we recommend the following :

1. Never accept to include a link on your website from someone who offers you a backlink exchange . That is, someone who, for free, offers to add a link to your website on their site in exchange for you doing the same with theirs.
2. If you work with an SEO agency, make sure they perform a link profile audit on your website . This is essential to ensure that your store does not have a low-quality external or internal link. PS: We never skip this step, as we want to be sure that your website does not have any malicious links.

Spam detection from the first crawl

As is the case for all of us, Google does not want to waste time . That is why the report highlights the importance of SpamBrain at the time of crawling. This means that Google can now identify from the first visit to your website if it contains malicious links . If so, indexing will be difficult.

Guidelines on anti-spam policies and AI-generated content

In the report, Google clarifies its anti-spam policy and its guidelines for not creating problems with the search engine . These include advice on how to avoid creating content that could get you penalized. And this is where one of the most talked about topics of this year comes in: AI-generated content! We already know that Google has accepted AI-generated content. But not just any content. Not everything is worth it. Google, in the report, accepts that AI-powered content is valid as long as it has not been created to manipulate search rankings . It also accepts content that is useful and valuable to the user. That may sound very abstract, so here are a few examples of what you shouldn't do. Google considers automatically generated content to be misleading if it is ...

• It doesn't make sense to read it, even if it contains key words.
• It is translated by a machine and has been published without human review or editing.
• The text is generated by combining content from several web pages without sufficient added value.
• Content is generated by scraping data from feeds or search results
• It is generated through automated processes without taking into account quality or user experience.

Here is all the information about what Google says about automatically generated content. Finally, we want to tell you: Not all content is worth it. You are not going to rank faster by generating AI content without restraint. You have to know how to create it and have the right prompts so that the content is useful. Human review, for the moment, is necessary?