On March 5th, Google announced yet another core algorithm update alongside three new spam policies. Announced via their main blog, the updates target scaled content, expired domain abuse and site reputation abuse. 

What does that mean for you? We’ll discuss each of the three updates in more detail and provide insight into what this means for best practices from a content perspective. 

It is no secret that Google has always prioritised the user and is constantly seeking ways to serve the best possible search results, so it is no surprise that Google is looking to reduce spam. 

Google has always had problems with the quality of the SERPs (search engine results page), the search experience, and the originality of content, with people looking to “game” the system ever since the search engine’s conception in 1998.

Why now? 

So, why now? It is clear that the principles of this update are nothing new, and the SEO tactics at the heart of the update (matching the highest quality content with user search) are something Google has and always will be about. 

What is clear, however, is that the generation of content (particularly low-quality content) is becoming increasingly difficult to police. 

With the rise of AI content creation and the ease of content creation on a mass scale, it is clear that Google is wary of the dangers, limitations, and inaccuracies this content could have for them and their goal of delivering high-quality content to users. 

What are Google’s three new spam policies? 

1. Scaled Content Abuse Spam 
2. Expired Domain Abuse Spam 
3. Site Reputation Abuse Spam 

Scaled Content Abuse Spam

To understand the latest Google update, we must break down the changes and define what this means for those in the world of SEO and Digital. 

What is Scaled Content Abuse Spam?

Scaled content abuse is manipulating Search by generating large amounts of unoriginal content that doesn’t help the user. Defined as content that provides little or no value for users, scaled content abuse will be considered spam, and Google will attack it.

It does not matter if this abuse of content is created manually, through AI, or a mix of the two; if it intends to manipulate the search, it will be considered spam. 

What is an example of Scaled Content Abuse?

An example of content that could be considered scaled content abuse would be pages that pretend to have answers to popular searches but don’t deliver the answers effectively and with value. 

The documentation from Google as to what constitutes scaled content abuse includes, but is not limited to: 

• Using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users. 
• Scraping feeds, search results or other content to generate many pages where little value is provided to users. This can include automated transformations, such as translating, synonymising or other techniques. In essence, if you ask Chat GPT to reword an article for you – you should be worried. More on what to do if you have completed an action like this later. 
• Combining existing content from different sites without adding any extra value. 
• Creating content on many pages that makes no sense to users but has a lot of search keywords. 

What should I do if I have completed something deemed Scaled Content Abuse?

If you have completed one of the actions above for content on your site, you should complete one of the following actions. 

1. Exclude it from Search.
2. Rewrite the content in an original manner. 
3. Rewrite the content and add some expertise to the content. 

Expired Domain Abuse Spam

This section will explore the definition of expired domain abuse spam and examples of where this can occur. 

What is Expired Domain Abuse Spam?

Chris Nelson from the Google Search Quality team has explained that expired domain abuse is when “an expired domain name is purchased and repurposed primarily to manipulate Search rankings by hosting content that provides little to no value to users.” 

This is deemed an intentional search spam tactic and is not something that can accidentally be done. Typically employed by people who want to rank with low-value content by riding on a domain's success and past reputation. 

What if I have purchased a domain?

If you recently purchased a domain and are worried about this impacting your performance, don’t worry. It is acceptable for people to purchase domain names to create a new, original site with high-quality content. 

What is an example of Expired Domain Abuse?

Some examples of expired domain abuse from Google’s policies include: 

• Casino-related content on a site that was previously for a school.
• Affiliate content on a site previously used by a government agency. 
• Commercial medical products being sold on a site previously used by a non-profit medical charity. 

Site Reputation Abuse Spam

This section will discuss what site reputation abuse consists of, including examples. 

What is Site Reputation Abuse?

Google has deemed site reputation abuse to be “when third-party pages are published with little or no first-party oversight or involvement.” As with the other updates, this refers to people trying to manipulate Search rankings by taking advantage of the first-party site’s ranking signals.

Site reputation abuse includes sponsored, advertising, partner, or other third-party pages independent of a host site’s main purpose. Many within the industry have been calling this Parasite SEO, and Google has been saying changes to spam tactics like this have been coming since November 2023. 

What are some examples of Site Reputation Abuse? 

The official help documentation from Google provides the following examples: 

• An educational site hosting a page about reviews of payday loans written by a third-party that distributes the same page to other sites across the web, with the main purpose of manipulating search rankings.
• A medical site hosting a third-party page about "best casinos" that's designed primarily to manipulate search rankings, with little to no involvement from the medical site.
• A movie review site hosting third-party pages about topics that would be confusing to users to find on a movie review site (such as "ways to buy followers on social media sites", the "best fortune teller sites", and the "best essay writing services"), where the purpose is to manipulate search rankings.
• A sports site hosting a page written by a third-party about "workout supplements reviews", where the sports site's editorial staff had little to no involvement in the content and the main purpose of hosting the page is to manipulate search rankings.
• A news site hosting coupons provided by a third-party with little to no oversight or involvement from the hosting site, and where the main purpose is to manipulate search rankings.

As this can be deemed a particularly grey area, the documentation also provides examples that are NOT considered site reputation abuse:

• Wire service or press release service sites
• News publications that have syndicated news content from other news publications
• Sites designed to allow user-generated content, such as a forum website or comment sections
• Columns, opinion pieces, articles, and other work of an editorial nature where there is close involvement or review by the host site
• Third-party content (for example, "advertorial" or "native advertising" type pages) that's produced with close involvement of the host site, where the purpose is to share content directly to readers (such as through promotion within the publication itself), rather than hosting the content to manipulate search rankings
• Embedding third-party ad units throughout a page or using affiliate links throughout a page, with links treated appropriately
• Coupons that are listed with close involvement of the hosting site

Is this the case for all third-party affiliations?

No, not at all. This is only considered spam or harmful if a site doesn’t have close oversight and is intended to manipulate Search. Many publications host advertising content designed for their regular readers. You will be fine if you have this sort of content on your site that won’t confuse regular readers when they find it on a publisher’s site or from Google search results. 

SEO content at Visualsoft

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