Google announced the rollout of the December 2024 spam update.
The update, expected to be completed within a week, arrives amid ongoing industry discussions about the effectiveness of Google’s spam-fighting measures.
This December update caps off a year of spam-fighting measures, including the June Spam Update and the March Core Update, which targeted policy-violating websites and aimed to reduce “unhelpful” content by 40%.
It’s also worth mentioning that this update closely follows the December core update.
Today we released the December 2024 spam update.
It may take up to 1 week to complete, and we’ll post on the Google Search Status Dashboard when the rollout is done: https://t.co/L7n9n3Nh6X
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) December 19, 2024
Looking Back At A Year Of Updates
This year saw an unprecedented frequency of major algorithm updates, with core updates in March, August, November, and December.
The August update, which took nearly three weeks to complete, targeted low-value SEO content while promoting high-quality material.
The December core update, launched on December 12, came unusually close to the November update, with Google explaining that different systems are often improved in parallel.
Policy Transformation
This year marked a shift in Google’s approach to spam detection and prevention with three major policy updates.