Image: BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash
Google released its December 2024 spam update on 19 December. It completed after just over a week, on 26 December.
It closely followed the December 2024 core update, which ran from 12-18 December.
Coinciding with the spam update rollout, Google announced an update to its ”Abusing the ad network” policy, effective from December.
The policy now includes a clarification to confirm that ads pointing to destinations penalized for violating Google Search spam policies will be disapproved.
“Advertisers should not violate Google Search's Spam Policies. In particular, ads that point to destinations that have been removed from Google Search through a manual action will be disapproved. Site owners are notified through Google Search Console about manual actions.”
It marks a busy year for Google. Aside from the core updates, this is the third spam update this year. The previous ones were in June 2024 and March 2024, the latter being released simultaneously with the March 2024 core update.
For further information, see Google's post on Search spam updates and your site and Google's spam policies in full.
