What You Must Know About Google's Newest Link Spam Update

Google is doing a good job at communicating updates and giving additional advice to everyone and make sure that those who follow SEO best practices are protected from any of the possible negative impacts of their update.

On July 26, 2021, Google announced that there will be a new algorithm update called the “link spam update”.  On Twitter, the Google Search Central account posted a reminder for everyone, including SEO services in Miami, to qualify all of their affiliate links, sponsored and guest posts that are used as monetization techniques.

The rollout took longer than expected to complete, but it’s finally done. And, that’s what this article’s all about.

What Is Link Spam Update?

The link spam update works to find and nullify all the spammy links across the internet and in all languages, especially those that are located in guest posts and sponsored content.

This is great news for those who follow white hat SEO practices for building links, but not for those who are actively participating in spammy backlink building.

How Can This Update Impact Your Site’s Performance?

Google makes regular changes to its search engine algorithms to improve the quality of search results. However, these updates tend to have an ample effect on the search engine results pages (SERPs). It can cause websites across different languages and industries to drop or gain rankings.

When your ranking drops, the crawl rate for specific pages on your site or your domain as a whole also goes down. This means that your website won’t appear for relevant searches and you won’t get as much traffic or leads. What’s worse is, this can go on for weeks or even months, unless you do something to fix the devaluation of your site ranking.

Fortunately, as long as you follow all the SEO best practices to a T, your website is safe from any considerable damage any update may bring.

Link Tag Best Practices

The goal of the link spam update is to abolish all the spammy techniques that still seem to work and discourage SEOs and marketers from using them.

So, what does Google recommend you do about this?

Google reminds site owners, marketers, and SEOs to qualify links accordingly when linking out to other websites. In other words, you need to add tags to links that are used for monetization, especially those that are found in your sponsored and guest content.

Here’s what each link should look like:

• ‍Affiliate Links: Whether your affiliate links are created manually or dynamically, make sure to qualify them with rel=”sponsored”.
• Sponsored Post Links: Paid links or links that are for paid placements or advertisements also need to be qualified with rel=”sponsored”.
• Guest Post Links: Qualify all your links from guest posts with rel=”nofollow”.

If you’re using spammy backlink-building tactics, it’s time to stop. It’s never too late to fix those links!

If you aren’t sure whether your SEO company is following white hat SEO link-building methods, don’t be afraid to ask.

Google said that failing to appropriately qualify your links may lead to manual actions.

Anchor Text Best Practices

An anchor text is any clickable text with hyperlink attached to it. It is usually used to link to another content or location on the web.

Anchor text serves as a clue for both search engines and users on the content of the hyperlink.

There are different types of anchor text you need to know about:

Exact match is a word or phrase that mimics the page that is being linked to.

Example: ‘Content writing’ linking to a page about content writing.

Partial-match is an anchor text that includes a modification of the word or phrase on the linked-to page.

Example: ‘content writing best practices’ linking to a page about content writing.

Branded involves using a brand or company name as an anchor text.

Example: ‘Digital Resource’ linking to a blog post on the DR website.

Naked link means using a URL as an anchor text.

Example: ‘www.yourdigitalresource.com

Generic terms such as “click here”, “read more”, “visit this page”, are all examples of a common generic anchor text.

Images are considered anchor text if you link to their alt attributes.

Although you have no control over the anchor text that other sites use to link back to your pages, you can apply best practices in your own content.

Whether you’re using affiliate links, sponsored post links, or guest post links, make sure to apply the following anchor text best practices:

• Choose words or phrases that will encourage users to click on your links.
• Pick the most concise and precise way to describe the page you’re linking to.
• See to it that your anchor text is relevant to the title and content of the page you’re linking to.
• Avoid using keyword-heavy phrases as your anchor text
• Go for more natural and descriptive anchor text phrases

What You Should Avoid

Aside from following link spam best practices, it’s also crucial to avoid doing the following so that the latest algorithm update won’t hurt you:

• Paying for links just to build your backlinks, especially if they’re not relevant to your site at all
• Using link exchange as your primary link-building technique‍
• Using tools like link generators and content spinners
• Using low-quality press release syndication services
• Spamming comments

Why You Need SEO Services in Miami

The recent link spam update can indeed be startling, especially if your business has participated in link exchanges or paid links in the past.

If you experienced any changes in your rankings recently, it might be related to Google’s latest link spam update. Follow Google’s webmaster guidelines, use natural anchor text, and continue to work on improving your website, so it will naturally attract quality links over time.

SEO services in Miami can help you clean your backlink profile and start afresh by building new, relevant backlinks!

Is Your Website Following Link Tag Best Practices?

If you don't know how to improve your website to accommodate Google’s latest link spam updates, we can help!

Digital Resource provides SEO services in Miami, from on-page SEO, such as keyword optimization and content creation, to off-page SEO, like backlink building and reputation management, we’ve got it all for you! Contact us today to know more!