{"id":1545867,"date":"2024-12-09T06:58:53","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T11:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/?p=1545867"},"modified":"2024-12-09T06:58:53","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T11:58:53","slug":"googles-site-reputation-abuse-policy-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/googles-site-reputation-abuse-policy-explained","title":{"rendered":"Google\u2019s Site Reputation Abuse Policy, Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google announced its site reputation abuse policy in March 2024 as part of a core update to its organic search algorithm.<\/p>\n

Google defined<\/a> site reputation abuse as “when third-party pages are published with little or no first-party [editorial] oversight or involvement, where the purpose is to manipulate Search rankings by taking advantage of the first-party site’s ranking signals.”<\/p>\n

News sites that publish recommendations from third parties are example abusers, per Google. To date, they reportedly<\/a> include CNN Underscored, Forbes Advisor, and WSJ Buy Side.<\/p>\n

Google has since expanded<\/a> the policy to include any<\/em> third-party content with or without oversight.<\/p>\n

Manual Penalty<\/h3>\n

Google enforces compliance with its reputation abuse guidelines via manual actions. If it considers a site an abuser, Google will notify the verified owner of a manual penalty in Search Console<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The penalty doesn’t affect the entire site, only the section that hosts the third-party content. To date, only sites that receive the manual action notice are penalized.<\/p>\n

But in an update<\/a> last month, Google stated it could algorithmically detect “if a section of a site is independent or starkly different from the main content of the site.” When the detection occurs, Google says it will treat that section as a separate site and not apply the main site’s authority.<\/p>\n

Thus expect Google to monitor and enforce site reputation abuse algorithmically.<\/p>\n

Recovery<\/h3>\n

There’s no recovery from this penalty. If your site hosts third-party content in the manner Google defines, there’s no way to fix it, even with editors or reviewers.<\/p>\n

Moreover, moving the penalized section to another subdomain or subdirectory will make matters worse, as Google explains in the policy circumvention section of its “Spam policies<\/a>,” stating:<\/p>\n

Circumvention includes but is not limited to:<\/em><\/p>\n