Google's New Search Spam Policy on Reputation Abuse Begins Today

Under Google's new Search spam policy, site reputation abuse is defined as 'third-party content produced primarily for ranking purposes and without close oversight of a website owner' and 'intended to manipulate Search rankings' which will be considered spam. This policy targets the practice commonly known as 'parasite SEO', where low-quality content is hosted on third-party sites to exploit their ranking power and mislead visitors.

Google's new Search spam policy regarding reputation abuse is set to take effect after May 5, 2024.

Parasite SEO refers to the strategy where third-party sites host low-quality content that is provided by others to leverage the ranking power of those third-party websites. For example, publishing payday loan reviews on a trusted educational website to gain ranking benefit. This practice is problematic because it can confuse or mislead visitors who may have different expectations for the content on a given website, and it can harm the fairness and quality of Search results.

Not all third-party content will be considered spam under the new policy. Google clarifies that publications hosting advertising content intended for their regular readers, rather than to primarily manipulate Search rankings, will not be classified as spam. This type of content is sometimes referred to as 'native advertising' or 'advertorial' and is not meant to confuse regular readers.

Google has announced that it will begin to take both automated and manual actions against site reputation abuse starting May 5, 2024. This enforcement is part of Google's effort to address the complaints and issues surrounding the quality of Search results affected by parasite SEO.