Google confirms that the Link Spam Update has been completed on August 24, 2021.
At first, Google Search Central stated that the Link Spam Update rollout will be completed in two weeks. But due to unknown circumstances, the rollout took two weeks longer than expected.
The Google Link Spam Update was confirmed by Google via a Twitter post published by the Google Search Central account. The Tweet was published last July 26 when the Link Spam Update began to roll out. The Tweet came as a reminder for websites and blogs which use affiliate links, sponsored articles, and guest posts to use the right tags for their links.
These tags were covered in a previous article we published about the Google Link Spam Algorithm Update 2021. Here are the recommended tags Google published that should be used for articles with sponsored links, affiliate links, and guest blog post links:
Affiliate Links Tag
- Affiliate Links – Articles with affiliate links should have included the rel = “sponsored” tag.
- Guest Blog Post Links – Articles or website content with advertisement links or paid links should be added with the rel= “sponsored” tag as well.
- Sponsored Post Links – Links from guest blog posts should be added with a rel = “no follow” tag.
The update will directly hit websites and blogs that monetize through their content by adding sponsored or paid links. Google aims to correct the old and spammy techniques some website and blog owners still use to this day. The Link Spam Update seeks to fix these issues.
Google also confirmed that affiliate links are still okay as long as the links are placed in relevant content and provide value to its search users. John Mueller even confirmed that the ratio of links to the article’s length is also irrelevant. The most important thing is that the affiliate link or sponsored link should also be relevant to the content.
Google further confirmed that relevancy is the key to an effective link-building strategy.
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