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Google has updated its documentation to provide clearer guidance on the site’s reputation abuse policy.
The changes are intended to help you better understand what qualifies as a violation and how to stay in compliance.
While the updates don’t change how the rules apply, they make it easier to follow the rules by including more detailed explanations from the recent one blog post FAQ.
The updated documentation now includes content pulled directly from Google’s November blog post on website reputation abuse.
That blog post introduced a Q&A section to clarify the policy. Google has now added these FAQ guidelines to its official spam documentation.
Google explained in a statement:
“We’ve updated the site’s reputation abuse policy to include guidance from our blog’s reputation abuse FAQ. These are editorial changes only, no behavioral changes.”
This means that the rules haven’t changed—they’ve just been rewritten to make them easier to understand.
Website reputation abuse occurs when third-party content is posted on a well-established website to take advantage of that website’s ranking signals.
Basically, this happens when someone uses a reputable site as a shortcut to improve rankings for unrelated or low-quality content, instead of earning those rankings independently.
For example:
However, not all third-party content is considered abusive. Forums, user-generated content, syndicated news articles, and editorials are generally acceptable as long as they are not designed to manipulate search rankings.
These updates make it easier to determine if your content violates the policy.
For example, Google’s FAQ now clarifies common scenarios, such as:
The FAQ also explains how to resolve rule violations. You can resolve the issue by removing or moving the offending content, submitting a reconsideration request in Search Console, and following Google’s spam guidelines.
This is a good reminder to review your content practices to ensure they comply with Google’s policies. If you host third-party content, make sure it adds value to users and doesn’t just detract from your website’s reputation.
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