Google has confirmed that the helpful content and link spam updates have finally finished rolling out, around a month after they launched.
Google was forced to push back its plans to complete the latest algorithm updates due to a delay over the festive period.
The search giant initially said they would take about 14 days to roll out but a decision to focus on stability over Christmas pushed the end date out into January.
Google admitted at the start of this year that the process was taking longer than anticipated but it eventually crossed the finish line on Thursday (12 January).
The helpful content update took the longest to complete at 38 days after it started rolling out on 5 December 2022.
This sitewide algorithm update is set to have a “meaningful” impact on search results, according to Google.
Any sites that are classified as having unhelpful content are less likely to feature near the top of SERPs.
Google advises anyone hit by the latest update to jettison unhelpful content and to focus on high-quality content creation.
However, it may take a few months for those hit to recover.
The link spam update is unlikely to affect any sites that are using white hat SEO tactics as it penalises buying links and passing them on.
The link spam update took 29 days to roll out after launching on 14 December.
SEOs are noticing a higher level of volatility at the moment so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on your pages to see if they are performing differently in search.
