Google announced the December 2024 spam update on 19th Dec. It marked the update complete on the Search Status Dashboard on 26th Dec 2024, after 7 days and 2 hours.
It was the third and final spam update of 2024, following the March and June spam updates. It began just one day after the December 2024 core update finished.
That made an unusually dense end to the year. It pushed ranking changes into the holiday week.
This was a general spam update. It improved Google's automated systems that detect violations of its spam policies across the board.
Search Engine Land reported it was not a link spam update. It also did not automate the site reputation abuse policy.
Google was still enforcing that policy only through manual actions at the time.
The same coverage noted the update hit hard within a few days. It appeared more widespread than some previous spam updates.
If your site dropped in the 19th to 26th Dec window, review Google's spam policies. Remove anything that violates them.
Spam updates are algorithmic, so no manual action appears in Search Console.
There is nothing to file a reconsideration request for. Improvements show up as Google's systems recrawl and reassess the site, which can take months.
