The Google Spam Update of August 2025 stunned the SEO community.  Many website owners' Domain Rating (DR) and Domain Authority (DA) dropped significantly.  Website owners who want to maintain or improve their site's performance must understand these changes.

What Changed in the Spam Update of August 2025?

In late August 2025, Google made a significant change to its spam filter to combat low-quality content and deceptive SEO methods.  This update included some important parts, such as:

Targeting low-quality content: 

Websites with shallow or irrelevant content were punished.  For example, a blog that posted generic articles without going into detail or providing new insights was likely to see its rankings drop.

Get rid of paid backlinks: 

Sites that used paid links to boost their authority received significant penalties.  For example, a website that purchased links from link farms (groups of bad sites) saw its DR and DA decrease.

Regarding Link Manipulation Techniques: 

The main targets were websites that used doorway pages or had an excessive number of keywords.  If a website created a large number of pages to rank for the same keyword without providing any real value, its ranking would suffer.

Google's goal was to improve the user experience by promoting genuine content that meets their needs and lowering the ranking of sites that prioritize quality over ranking.

What happened with DR and DA?

To understand why DR and DA decreased, we need to examine the metrics themselves:

Domain Rating (from Ahrefs) and Domain Authority (from Moz) are third-party metrics rather than metrics provided directly by Google.  They are instead based on the quantity and quality of links pointing to a website.

What happens when Google removes or reduces the value of backlinks during spam updates? 

These tools notice that the quality and number of referring domains decrease.  As a result, DR and DA scores drop as well.

For example, if a website had 50 backlinks, but 20 of them were from spammy sites, the update may cause Google to ignore those low-quality links.  As a result, the site's DR may decrease due to the lower quality of all backlinks.

How to Restore DR and DA After the Update

When DR and DA levels drop, it can be concerning, but with the right strategy, you can improve.  Here are detailed instructions to help you retrieve your metrics:

Check your backlinks.

Perform a full audit using tools such as Ahrefs, Moz, and Google Search Console.  Find links that are spammy, useless, or of poor quality.
For example, if you see links to a site that is clearly a link farm or has nothing to do with your niche, flag them for removal.

Remove or deny spammy links:

Contact the site owners and ask them to remove the links.  If that isn't possible, create a disavow file to instruct Google not to look at the links.
 For example, if a site that links to you refuses to remove the link, you can include it in your disavow file and submit it to Google Search Console.

Make the content better.

Make sure to enhance the quality of your content.  Remove duplicate content and update thin or outdated pages.
For example, if you have a page with only a few sentences about a topic, add more information, examples, and data to make it more comprehensive.

Avoid black-hat SEO techniques:

Avoid using black-hat methods, such as paid link schemes.
If you are currently doing a lot of guest posting, consider changing your strategy.  Make sure your guest posts are high-quality, useful, and relevant to your target audience.

Rebuild With High-Quality Links:

Instead of just getting backlinks, focus on creating useful content and connecting with people.
For example, create a detailed guide or infographic on a hot topic in your niche and send it to relevant websites for them to link to.

When will things be better?

It takes some time for DR and DA metrics to recover.  After making the necessary changes:

Timeframe for recovery: 

Tools such as Ahrefs and Moz typically take 6 to 12 weeks to crawl your site and update their metrics.

Tracking progress: 

Use Google Search Console to monitor organic traffic and impressions.  These numbers are steadily increasing, which indicates that your recovery efforts are effective.

Last thoughts

The Google Spam Update of August 2025 serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of quality in SEO.  Don't just chase numbers; instead, prioritize real growth through quality content and honest SEO.

 Following these rules will not only restore your DR and DA, but will also extend the life of your site's reputation and strength.  Take advantage of this opportunity to improve your SEO strategy and build a long-lasting online presence that meets Google's changing standards.