Site reputation abuse policy (2024): dates, rules and what changed

What Google changed#

Google announced site reputation abuse as a new spam policy on 5 March 2024, the same day as the March 2024 core update and spam update. It defined the practice as “when third-party pages are published with little or no first-party oversight or involvement,” where the purpose is to manipulate rankings by taking advantage of the host site’s signals. Google’s own example is an educational site hosting sponsored payday loan reviews written by a third party.

Google stressed that not all third-party content breaks the policy. Advertorial content meant for a publication’s regular readers, for instance, “doesn’t have to be blocked from Google Search.” Violating content, by contrast, had to be blocked from Search.

When it rolled out#

Google said the policy “will take effect starting May 5, 2024” to give site owners time to prepare, so 5 May 2024 is the start date here. Google enforces it through manual actions reported in Search Console. Google stated no completion date.

The policy has changed twice since. On 19 November 2024 Google said “no amount of first-party involvement alters the fundamental third-party nature of the content,” covering white-label services and licensing deals. On 28 August 2026, following discussion with the European Commission, Google said that from 30 August 2026 manual actions under the policy would not affect results shown in the EEA; there, the affected section may be ranked separately from the rest of the site. Google’s spam policies page now calls it the site reputation policy.

What is known about its impact#

Google published no figures on how many sites received manual actions under the policy. On 13 November 2025 Google said the European Commission had announced an investigation into its anti-spam efforts. Google’s Chief Scientist for Search, Pandu Nayak, called it “misguided” in a post the same day, describing the practice as “parasite SEO” (also known as “site reputation abuse”). Parasite SEO is a name the SEO industry adopted for the practice.

What site owners should do#

Google’s current spam policies describe how it reviews a section of a site. It looks at whether the content is consistent with the host’s design, whether its quality departs from the main domain, its stated authorship, and whether the same content appears on other sites.

• Audit sponsored, partner, coupon and affiliate sections for third-party content you do not control.
• Block from Search, or remove, third-party pages that exist mainly to borrow your site’s ranking signals.
• Keep advertorial content clearly for your own readers, and qualify its links.
• If you receive a manual action, fix the issue and file a reconsideration request in Search Console.

How to check whether it affected you#

Open the Manual actions report in Search Console. Google notifies site owners there when it applies an action under this policy, and the report is the only definitive signal. Separately, Google said it treats independent sections of a site as standalone sites, which can reduce their traffic without a manual action. The Google Algorithm Updates timeline lists nearby updates.

Related updates#

• The March 2024 spam update launched the same day the policy was announced.
• The June 2024 spam update was the next spam update after enforcement began.