Google June 2024 Spam Update: Dates, Scope and What to Do

What happened in June 2024

The Google Search Status Dashboard lists the June 2024 spam update as starting on 20 June 2024 and ending on 27 June, a rollout of just over seven days. That was shorter than the March 2024 spam update, which ran about two weeks, and far shorter than the core update that followed in August.

Update	Rollout window	Type
June 2024 spam update	20-27 Jun 2024	Spam

It was a quiet kind of update. There was no long blog post, no new policy and no named example. Google’s Search Central account said only that it had released the June 2024 spam update, and Google said the rollout could take up to a week and that it would post on the dashboard when it finished. That is exactly what the dashboard shows.

What Google said

According to trade reporting on the announcement, a Google Search Liaison clarification followed shortly after: this update was separate from the algorithmic component of the site reputation abuse policy, which had not yet rolled out. Google said it would announce that rollout separately. In other words, anyone expecting June 2024 to be the day “site reputation abuse” was enforced at scale was told otherwise.

Spam updates in general improve how Google’s systems detect content and behavior that break its spam policies. Google’s spam policies lists the behaviors Google considers spam, and Google’s guide to its ranking systems says Google uses a range of spam detection systems, including one called SpamBrain, to deal with violating content and behaviors. It adds that these systems are constantly updated as spam techniques evolve. Beyond that, Google does not publish details of what an individual spam update changes, so we cannot tell you which specific signals were adjusted in June 2024.

How it connects to March 2024

In March 2024, Google announced new policies covering scaled content abuse, expired domain abuse and site reputation abuse, alongside a core update and a spam update. Our write-up of the March 2024 core and spam update explains those policies in detail. The June update came about three months later and can reasonably be read as another round of improving spam detection. Google has not said that it was tied to any single policy, though, so be careful of anyone who claims that it was.

Who was most likely affected

Google has not published affected-site lists for this update. Because it was a spam update, the sites that need to pay attention are those whose practices cross the line in Google’s spam policies. In practice that means:

• Sites that publish large volumes of low-value pages made mainly to rank.
• Sites that buy or sell links to manipulate rankings.
• Sites with hidden text, sneaky redirects or cloaking.
• Hacked sites carrying injected spam pages without the owner’s knowledge.
• Sites relying on scraped or copied content.

If none of those describe your business, a spam update is unlikely to have been the reason for a change in your traffic. For the vast majority of small Oregon businesses, a ranking change in late June 2024 is far more likely to have another explanation, such as seasonality, a competitor, a technical change or a leftover effect of the March core update, which had finished just two months earlier.

A quick way to check whether June 2024 affected you

1. Pin down the date. In Search Console, look at daily clicks and impressions. A change that begins between 20 and 27 June and persists is worth investigating. A change on, say, 3 June is not related.
2. Compare the right windows. Compare the week after the rollout finished with the week before 20 June. Google’s Google’s core updates guidance gives that same approach for core updates, and it works well for spam updates too.
3. Check Search Console messages. Look at the manual actions and security issues reports. If neither shows anything, your site was not manually penalized or flagged as hacked.
4. Look at which pages changed. Look for a pattern, such as a bulk-generated directory or a link-heavy section, rather than assuming the whole site was hit.
5. Audit backlinks only if there is a reason. If you paid for links in the past, or an old agency built them, review the profile. Our link building approach concentrates on earned, relevant links rather than purchased placements.

Fixes that actually help

Clean up the site first

If you find hacked content, remove it, close the vulnerability, update plugins and themes, and change credentials. A WordPress site that is kept updated and monitored rarely hits this problem, and our WordPress services include maintenance and security hygiene. Oregon sites have no special exemption; we see the same plugin-related issues in Eugene as in Portland.

Replace the shortcut with something real

If a section of your site exists only to catch search traffic, such as a block of near-identical city pages, either make each one useful with local detail and genuine information or consolidate them. Our on-page SEO and content SEO work is aimed at making pages that deserve to rank.

Stop violating the policy

For an algorithmic spam demotion, Google generally expects the violating behavior to stop. If a manual action exists, Search Console explains how to fix it and submit a reconsideration request. Without a manual action, there is nothing to submit; you fix the issue, and the systems reassess over time.

What not to do

• Do not panic-delete good content because a spam update happened. Spam updates are about violations, not about quality in general.
• Do not disavow your backlinks wholesale without a clear reason.
• Do not buy a “recovery package” from someone promising a quick fix. Google does not publish a trick for this.
• Do not compare your site to unrelated businesses. Seasonal and local swings are normal.
• Do not try to out-spam spammers who still rank. Short-term results from rule-breaking tend to disappear when detection improves.

What this means for the next update

The June 2024 spam update is a good example of why a clean, durable approach beats reacting to dates. The next significant event after it was the August 2024 core update, which Google said was influenced by feedback on how the March update affected small and independent sites. If you want to place every update on a calendar, see our Google updates timeline for 2023 to 2026.

Frequently asked questions

When was the June 2024 Google spam update?

It started on 20 June 2024 and finished on 27 June 2024, per the Google Search Status Dashboard.

How long did Google say it would take?

Google said the rollout could take up to a week to complete, and the dashboard shows it finishing at around seven days.

Was the June 2024 update about site reputation abuse?

No. Google clarified that it was separate from the algorithmic component of the site reputation abuse policy, which was not yet rolled out and would be announced separately.

Can I recover from a spam update?

If your site was demoted for a spam-policy violation, stopping the behavior is the starting point. Google’s systems reassess over time, and if there is a manual action, Search Console explains how to request a review.

Is a spam update the same as a core update?

No. Core updates are broad changes to ranking systems and do not target specific sites. Spam updates improve detection of content and behaviors that violate Google’s spam policies.

If you are unsure whether a ranking change was spam-related or something simpler, request a free SEO audit. We will check Search Console, security status and your content, and give you a straight answer.