If your traffic moved in the last day or two, you may be asking whether the October 2023 spam update is the cause. Google started it on 4 October 2023. It is an update to Google’s spam detection systems, and Google says it will take a few weeks to fully roll out.
This one has a clear focus. Google says it targets spam that people reported in many languages, including Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi and Chinese. The main types are cloaking, hacked sites, auto-generated content and scraped content.
Below I explain what each of those means in plain words, how to tell if your site is affected, and what I would do this week.
What Google Has Confirmed About the October 2023 Spam Update
Google announced the update in a short post on the Search Central blog on 4 October 2023. Here is what we know so far.
- Start date: 4 October 2023.
- Rollout time: a few weeks. There is no end date yet.
- Languages: Google names Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi and Chinese, “among others”.
- Spam types: cloaking, hacked, auto-generated and scraped spam.
- Why now: Google says it heard feedback from the community about spam in search results in people’s own languages.
- Size: Google has not said what share of searches is affected.
Google also thanked people in its Help community and those who sent spam reports. It said work on the next spam update has already started. So this is not a one-off clean-up. It is part of an ongoing cycle.
Where This Fits in Google’s Recent Updates
This is the first confirmed spam update of 2023. The last one was the December 2022 link spam update, which focused on paid and unnatural links. I covered it in my guide to the December 2022 link spam update and SpamBrain.
Google has been busy since the summer. The August 2023 core update started on 22 August, and the September 2023 helpful content update started on 14 September. If your traffic changed in the last two months, keep those dates in mind before you blame this update.
What Is a Google Spam Update?
Google runs automated systems all the time to find spam. Every so often it makes a notable improvement to those systems. Google calls that a spam update.
When the systems get better, they catch sites they missed before. Those pages then rank lower or drop out of results.
A spam update is not the same as a core update. A core update changes how Google judges overall quality and relevance across the web. A spam update is narrower. It is about catching pages that try to trick Google or harm searchers.
The Role of SpamBrain
Google’s main AI-based spam system is called SpamBrain. Google has said it uses SpamBrain to spot spam sites, hacked sites and link spam. Updates like this one usually mean SpamBrain and related systems have been trained to catch more patterns.
That is why this update can target spam in specific languages. Spam detection often works better in English first. Training on other languages closes the gap.
The Four Spam Types This Update Targets
Google named four types. Each one is already against its spam policies. The update does not add new rules. It gets better at enforcing the existing ones.
Cloaking
Cloaking means showing Google one version of a page and showing people a different one. For example, Google sees a helpful article about travel tips, but a visitor is sent to a casino or pills page.
Honest sites rarely do this on purpose. But it often shows up on hacked sites, where the attacker adds code that only shows spam to Googlebot or only to visitors coming from search.
Hacked Content
Hacked content is anything someone puts on your site without your permission. Common examples are:
- Hundreds of new spam pages in a hidden folder.
- Hidden links to other sites added to your footer or old posts.
- Redirects that send mobile visitors from search to a spam site.
- Japanese or Chinese keyword pages appearing on an English site.
This is the type that worries me most for ordinary business owners. You can be a victim and still see your site lose ground. In my experience, the usual cause is an outdated plugin, theme or CMS version, or a weak admin password.
Auto-Generated Content
Google’s spam policies cover spammy automatically generated content. This means content made by a program mainly to rank, with little or no value for readers. Examples include text stitched together from search results, or keyword-stuffed pages made from a template for every town name.
This does not mean all automated or AI-assisted content is spam. Google said in February 2023 that using AI is not against its guidelines, as long as the main goal is not to manipulate rankings. The question is whether the page helps the person who lands on it.
Scraped Content
Scraping means copying content from other sites and publishing it with little or no added value. Typical cases are sites that copy news articles, copy product descriptions from big stores, or “spin” other people’s text with synonyms.
If your site quotes or curates content, that is fine when you add real value. I’d ask a simple question: if someone found your page and the original, would yours give them something extra?
Why the Language Focus Matters
Many site owners in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey and Chinese-speaking markets have long complained that spam in their results is worse than in English results. Google’s post confirms it heard that feedback.
If you run a site in one of these languages, this update matters more to you. Two things can happen:
- Spammy competitors drop. Pages that ranked through cloaking or scraped content may fall, which can open space for honest sites.
- Your own weak spots get caught. If your site has hacked pages, copied content or mass-made pages, they are now more likely to be found.
English-language sites are not out of scope. Google said “among others”, and spam detection improvements often apply widely. But I would expect the biggest visible change in the languages Google named.
How to Tell If the October 2023 Spam Update Affected Your Site
Spam updates are automatic. Google does not send a message to say you were hit. You need to read your own data.
- Open the Performance report in Search Console. Compare the days after 4 October with the same days the week before. Look at clicks and impressions, not just average position.
- Look for a sharp, lasting drop. Spam-related drops are often steep rather than slow. A small wobble of a few percent is normal day-to-day noise.
- Check which pages lost traffic. Use the Pages tab. If the drop sits in one folder, one template or one language section, that tells you where to look.
- Rule out other causes. Check for site changes, tracking problems, server errors and seasonal dips. Also check whether the drop started in August or September instead.
- Wait for the rollout to finish. Google said it will take a few weeks. Early numbers can swing, so don’t make big decisions in the first days.
When I review a drop like this, I always mark every update start date on the chart first. It stops me from linking a change to the wrong update.
Spam Update or Helpful Content Update?
This question will come up a lot because the two updates are close together. Here is a simple way to separate them.
| Signal | More likely spam update | More likely helpful content update |
|---|---|---|
| Start of the drop | On or after 4 October 2023 | Between 14 and 28 September 2023 |
| What it hits | Specific spammy pages or sections | The whole site, through a site-wide signal |
| Typical cause | Hacking, cloaking, scraping, mass auto-made pages | Lots of content made mainly for search engines |
| First fix | Clean up the policy problem | Improve or remove unhelpful content |
If you think the September update is the real cause, my September 2023 helpful content update guide explains what changed in Google’s guidance.
Check Your Site for the Targeted Spam Types
Even if your traffic looks fine, this is a good moment for a quick spam check. Here is the order I follow.
1. Security Issues and Manual Actions in Search Console
Open the Security issues report and the Manual actions report. Both are under “Security & Manual Actions” in the left menu.
A spam update does not create a manual action. A manual action is a separate penalty that a person at Google applies. But if either report shows a problem, fix that first. It is the clearest signal you will get.
2. Search Google for Your Own Site
Type site:yourdomain.com into Google. Scroll through the results. Then try it with spam words, for example:
site:yourdomain.com casino
site:yourdomain.com viagra
site:yourdomain.com loanAlso look for pages in a language your site does not use. Hacked sites often show odd titles in Japanese, Chinese or other scripts. If you see pages you did not create, treat it as a hack.
3. Compare What Google Sees With What Users See
Use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console and run a live test on a few key pages. Look at the rendered HTML and screenshot. If Google sees content that a normal visitor does not, you may have cloaking from injected code.
I also click through to my own pages from a Google search on a phone. Some hacks only redirect mobile visitors who arrive from search, so loading the page directly can look normal.
4. Check the Pages Report for Sudden Growth
In the Pages report (the index coverage report), look at the number of indexed pages over time. A sudden jump you can’t explain often means spam pages were added. Check new URLs in your sitemap and server files as well.
5. Review Auto-Made and Copied Content
List any pages created in bulk: location pages, tag pages, product feeds, or AI-written posts. Ask whether each group gives readers real, unique value.
I usually see trouble with city pages that only swap the town name, and with product pages that copy the maker’s description word for word. Neither is always spam, but both are weak spots worth fixing.
What to Do If the Spam Update Hit Your Site
If you find a real problem, here is how I would handle it.
- Fix security first. If the site is hacked, update the CMS, themes and plugins, change all passwords, remove unknown admin users and clean the injected files. Your hosting company can often help.
- Remove spam pages properly. Delete hacked or spam URLs so they return a 404 or 410 status code (a server reply that says the page is gone). Don’t redirect them to your home page.
- Fix or remove weak bulk content. Merge thin pages, rewrite copied text, and remove pages that exist only to rank.
- Check user-generated areas. Comments, forums and profile pages can collect spam. Add moderation and tighten sign-up rules.
- Read Google’s spam policies in full. The spam policies for Google web search are the clearest list of what these updates look for.
- Request a review only if there is a manual action. Spam updates have no review form. If you only lost traffic to the update, you just fix the issue and wait.
How Long Recovery Takes
Recovery is slow. Google says improvements may show only after its automated systems learn, over a period of months, that the site follows its spam policies.
For link spam the rule is stricter. Google says any ranking benefit that spammy links gave you is lost and can’t be regained. Cleaning up stops future harm, but it won’t bring back that boost.
My honest advice: don’t wait for the next update to “release” your site. Fix the problem, keep publishing useful content, and judge progress over months, not days.
What If Competitors Still Use Spam?
Many people will check the results this week and still see spam. That is frustrating, but it is useful information.
Google launched a new search quality report form in June 2023. It lets you report spam, paid links, low-quality pages and other issues in one place, and you can include up to five pages in one report. Google says these reports help it find gaps in its automated spam systems.
I’d report clear spam, especially in non-English results, but I wouldn’t expect one report to remove a single site. The reports feed future improvements like this update. I’d spend more energy on making your own pages better than the spam ones.
My Take on the October 2023 Spam Update
For most honest business sites, this update is good news. Cloaking, hacked pages and scraped content push real businesses down, and fewer of them in results helps everyone.
The real risk is hidden problems. A site owner who never checks security can lose traffic because of spam they didn’t create. That is why I’d treat this update as a reminder to run a basic security and content check, even if your numbers look fine.
For sites in Hindi, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Turkish and Chinese, I’d watch rankings more closely over the coming weeks. If spammy competitors drop, there may be room to grow with genuinely useful pages.
Conclusion
The October 2023 spam update started on 4 October 2023 and will take a few weeks to roll out. It targets cloaking, hacked, auto-generated and scraped spam, with a special focus on languages such as Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi and Chinese.
Your next step is simple. Open Search Console today, check the Security issues and Manual actions reports, and run a few site: searches for pages you don’t recognise. Then wait for the rollout to end before you judge the full impact. If you want to see how Google handled its last general spam update, my notes on the October 2022 spam update are a useful comparison.
