March 2024 spam update
Spam update released alongside three new spam policies covering scaled content abuse, site reputation abuse and expired domain abuse.
What changed
Google ran a spam update from 5 to 19 March 2024 that enforced newly published policies as well as improving detection of existing spam types. Large numbers of sites were deindexed during the rollout, particularly those publishing bulk automatically generated content. The update was announced in the same post as the March 2024 core update, and Google noted that manual actions would also be applied.
Timing
Rollout began 5 March 2024. Google declared it complete on 19 March 2024, 14 days later. Rankings typically remain unstable for the whole rollout window, so measurements taken inside it are not a reliable read on the outcome.