A recent Twitter settlement and Google's latest Penguin update send clear messages to marketers - spam content won't be tolerated any more.

Marketers know the rules are changing for SEO content success. Brands were once rewarded with higher search rankings by refreshing their sites with keyword-stuffed articles. Those days are over. To succeed in search, businesses must publish branded content that offers actionable insight and real value to readers. Twitter recently settled a lawsuit against TweetAdder, a microblogging business that allowed customers to automatically generate spammy tweets to promote their products and services, according to AllThingsD.

This is one of five suits Twitter has filed against companies that saturate its popular social media platform with unoriginal content. In April 2013, the company blog stated that Twitter posts more than 340 million tweets each day. The site now has more than 200 monthly active users, and as it gained popularity, it also drew the attention of spammers.

“Twitter is committed to aggressively protecting its users from spam, and we use all tools at our disposal to shut down spammers, including through the legal action filed last year,” a Twitter spokesperson told AllThingsD.

Organic content is crucial to brands' success.

The fight against spam content online is nothing new for marketers. Google introduced the Panda and Penguin Algorithms to clean up search results and guarantee internet users better web surfing experiences. The latest Penguin update, 2.0, rolled out last week, affecting 2.3 percent of English queries with its new spam-fighting technology, Brafton reported.

For marketers, the message is clear – custom content is the key to social and search success. Internet regulators are cracking down on poor practices, such as populating websites with unoriginal articles or keyword-laden blog posts, and rewarding sites that host engaging and informative content.

Lauren Kaye is a Marketing Editor at Brafton Inc. She studied creative and technical writing at Virginia Tech before pursuing the digital frontier and finding content marketing was the best place to put her passions to work. Lauren also writes creative short fiction, hikes in New England and appreciates a good book recommendation.