June 2024 Spam Update: What It Targets

If your traffic dipped yesterday or today, you may be asking if the June 2024 spam update is the cause. Google released it on 20 June 2024. It is an improvement to Google’s automated spam detection, and Google says it may take up to one week to finish rolling out.

Google has not named a single tactic it is going after. The update targets sites that break Google’s spam policies. In this article I’ll cover what Google has confirmed, what this update is not, how to check your site, and what I would do while the rollout is still running.

What Google Has Confirmed About the June 2024 Spam Update

Google posted the release on its Search Status Dashboard on the morning of 20 June (Pacific time). The facts so far are short:

• Start date: 20 June 2024.
• Rollout time: up to one week, according to Google. That puts the likely end date around 27 June, but Google has not confirmed it yet.
• Target: sites that violate Google’s spam policies. No specific tactic was named.
• Scope: Google has not said what share of searches is affected.
• Next step from Google: it will post on the Search Status Dashboard when the rollout is complete.

This is the first named spam update since March. Google ran the March 2024 spam update alongside the March 2024 core update, and that spam update finished on 20 March. Before that, the last one was the October 2023 spam update.

What the June 2024 Spam Update Is Not

The questions I’ve seen most since yesterday are about what this update does not cover. Google has been fairly clear on two points.

It Is Not the Site Reputation Abuse Algorithm

Many publishers expected Google’s site reputation abuse policy to get an automated version soon. That policy is about third-party content hosted on a strong site mainly to ride on that site’s ranking signals. People often call it “parasite SEO”. I explained the policy in my article on site reputation abuse and parasite SEO.

Google has said this is a normal spam update and not the algorithmic part of site reputation abuse. Google’s Search Liaison account added that Google will say so when it starts acting on that policy algorithmically. Right now, site reputation abuse is still handled through manual actions, which Google started issuing in May.

It Is Not a Link Spam Update

Google has run separate link spam updates before, such as the December 2022 link spam update. This one is labelled only as a “spam update”. When asked, Google said it is not a link spam update.

That matters for diagnosis. If your site dropped this week, I would not start by auditing your backlinks. I’d look at the content and the pages on the site first.

What a Google Spam Update Actually Does

Google’s spam systems run all the time. A spam update is a noticeable improvement to those systems, so they catch sites they missed before. Sites that get caught may rank lower or drop out of results.

The main system here is SpamBrain, Google’s AI-based spam prevention system. Google improves it from time to time to spot new kinds of spam. A spam update usually means SpamBrain or a related system just got better at something.

How It Differs From a Core Update

A core update changes how Google judges the overall quality and relevance of pages. A spam update is narrower. It is about pages that try to trick Google or harm users.

In my experience, the difference shows in the shape of the drop. A spam hit is often sharp and focused on certain pages or sections. A core update shift is usually more spread out.

Which Spam Policies Could Be in Play

Since Google hasn’t named a target, the spam policies for Google web search are the best guide. These are the ones I’d keep in mind this week:

• Scaled content abuse: making many pages mainly to rank, with little value for users. Google says this applies no matter how the content is made, whether by AI, by people, or a mix.
• Expired domain abuse: buying an old domain and filling it with low-value content to borrow its past reputation.
• Thin affiliate pages: product pages copied from a merchant with nothing original added.
• Scraping: republishing content from other sites without adding real value.
• Doorway pages: many near-identical pages built to rank for small keyword variations, such as one page per city with only the city name changed.
• Cloaking and sneaky redirects: showing Google something different from what users see, or sending users somewhere they didn’t expect.
• Hacked content and user-generated spam: spam added to your site by attackers or by users in comments, forums or profiles.
• Keyword stuffing and hidden text: older tactics, but they still exist.

Scaled content abuse, expired domain abuse and site reputation abuse were all added in March 2024. I covered them in detail in the March 2024 core update and new spam policies. My guess is that Google keeps improving how it detects the first two, but that is my opinion, not something Google has said about this update.

A Note on AI Content

A lot of people ask if this update targets AI-written content. Google has not said that. Its position is that the problem is content made at scale mainly to manipulate rankings, not the tool used to write it.

In my view, the risk comes from publishing large volumes of pages nobody reviewed, edited or added real value to. AI makes that easier, so AI-heavy sites are more exposed. But a careful site using AI as a drafting tool is not the target just because it uses AI.

How to Check If Your Site Was Affected

The rollout is still running, so any data you look at today is incomplete. Still, you can start gathering the right information. This is the order I follow:

1. Mark the start date. Note 20 June 2024. Changes that began before it are not from this update.
2. Open the Search Console Performance report. Compare clicks and impressions since 20 June with the same days in the previous week. Use daily data, not weekly.
3. Find where the change sits. Use the Pages and Queries tabs. Check if the drop is site-wide or limited to one folder, one content type or one group of keywords.
4. Check Manual actions and Security issues. Both reports are in Search Console. If either shows a problem, fix that first, because it’s a separate and more direct issue.
5. Look for hacked or spam pages. Search site:yourdomain.com together with words like casino, pills or loans. Check for unknown pages in the Pages report too.
6. Rule out other causes. Look for recent noindex tags, robots.txt edits, redirect changes, server errors or broken tracking. Seasonality can also look like a drop.
7. Wait for the end of the rollout. Once Google confirms it’s complete, compare a full week after the update with a full week before.

When I review a drop, I always split the site into sections before looking at totals. A site-wide average can hide a big loss in one folder, and that folder usually tells you what went wrong.

Don’t Confuse It With Other Changes

Rankings move every day, and not every drop is a spam update. Google also makes many smaller changes it never announces. If your site lost traffic in March or April, that is more likely tied to the long March 2024 core update than to this one.

I’d also check whether your competitors changed, not just your site. Sometimes a site loses positions because others gained, not because it was hit.

What to Do If the Spam Update Hit Your Site

If the drop lines up with 20 June and it’s sharp, assume a spam issue is possible and look at your site honestly. Here is how I’d approach it.

Start With the Pages That Lost the Most

Pull the pages with the biggest click losses from Search Console. Then ask simple questions about each one:

• Was this page made mainly to rank, or to help a real visitor?
• Is it one of many near-identical pages built from a template?
• Does it add anything that isn’t already on the page it was based on?
• Is it third-party content that has nothing to do with the main site?
• Would I be comfortable explaining to a Google employee why it exists?

That last question is my rule of thumb. If the honest answer is “to catch search traffic”, the page is a risk.

Fix, Merge or Remove

For each weak page, pick one of three actions:

• Improve it if the topic is useful and you can add real value, such as original testing, clear steps or first-hand detail.
• Merge it into a stronger page if several pages cover the same thing. Redirect the old URLs to the new one.
• Remove it if it has no value for users. Return a 404 or 410 status, or noindex it if users still need it.

I usually see site owners try to save every page. In my experience, cutting a large block of thin pages helps more than lightly rewriting all of them.

Clean Up Spam You Didn’t Create

Some sites get caught because of spam they never wrote. Hacked pages and spam comments are common examples. Close open comment sections you don’t moderate, block spam account sign-ups, and remove any pages attackers added.

If you host third-party content, such as sponsored sections or partner pages, review it now. Even though this update isn’t the site reputation abuse algorithm, Google is clearly paying attention to this area.

What Not to Do

• Don’t make big changes on day one. Wait until you have a clear pattern.
• Don’t start disavowing links in a panic. Google says this is not a link spam update.
• Don’t send reconsideration requests unless you have a manual action. There is nothing to reconsider after an automated update.
• Don’t move the content to a new domain to escape the drop. The same problems move with it, and you lose the history of the old site.

How Long Recovery Takes

This is the hard part. Google’s spam updates documentation says that after you make changes, its automated systems may take months to learn that your site now follows its spam policies.

So recovery is not instant, and it’s not tied to the next update. Rankings can improve gradually as Google recrawls your pages and its systems see the changes.

There is one exception worth knowing. If a site gained rankings through spammy links, Google says that lost benefit does not come back. Fixing the links stops further harm, but it doesn’t restore what those links gave you.

I tell site owners to set expectations early. Plan for months, track progress by section, and keep improving the site rather than waiting for a single moment of recovery.

If Your Site Wasn’t Hit

Most sites won’t see any effect from a spam update. If you’re stable, you don’t need to do anything special this week. Still, I’d use it as a reminder to check a few things:

• Any content you publish at scale gets a real human review.
• Old, thin pages from past campaigns get cleaned up.
• Comment sections, forums and profile pages are moderated.
• Third-party or sponsored content is clearly tied to your main audience and closely managed.

You may even see gains. When spammy competitors drop, cleaner sites can move up. Just don’t treat a short-term rise as a final result until the rollout ends.

My Take on the June 2024 Spam Update

The June 2024 spam update looks like a routine improvement to Google’s spam systems, not a new policy. Google has ruled out link spam and the site reputation abuse algorithm. That leaves the content-side policies, especially the ones added in March, as the most useful place to focus.

I’d use the next week to collect data and avoid quick changes. Once Google confirms the rollout is done, compare full weeks, find the sections that moved, and act on what you find.

If your traffic problems started earlier in the year, the cause may be quality rather than spam. In that case, my recovery plan for sites hit by the helpful content system is a better next step.