Google started enforcing it Abuse of website reputation Spam policy on May 7, 2024, after the policy was announced two months earlier (when the March 2024 core update was rolled out). At this point, we did not know whether enforcement would occur through manual action, an algorithm update, or a combination of both. Back then it was just manual actions and we are still waiting for the algorithmic part to roll out.
When Google implemented manual measures against site reputation abuse, many sites that violated the policy had their content de-indexed. This was handled at the directory or subdomain level and search visibility dropped (for obvious reasons). For example, here are two sites that received manual actions. Note that the drop only affected the directories or subdomains that contained the content that violated the site’s reputation abuse policy, and not the entire site:
For affected websites, the solution to removing these manual actions was simple. Just follow Google’s recommendations to block content. For example, you could choose not to index the content or simply remove it completely. Note that some websites do block content via robots.txt not A mechanism that Google recommends for blocking HTML documents. They have the approach listed in their documentation Images and videosbut not for HTML pages. I’ll share more about why soon.
Therefore, sites that quickly did not index the directories or subdomains that violate site reputation abuse or completely removed these areas have had their manual actions removed. And some were removed very quickly. However, these manual actions have been removed didn’t really mean anything from a search visibility and Google traffic perspective. That’s because the content is now either not indexed or removed! Therefore, these websites would not be compensated for content that violates Google’s policy on site reputation abuse.
Or would there be a recovery? More on this soon…
How manual measures can fail and why algorithmic handling of spam policies (e.g. site reputation abuse) is the way to go.
Why aren’t manual measures the best way to enforce website reputation abuse? Well, the measures website owners take are not foolproof. Some websites have chosen to block the directories or subdomains via robosts.txt, but this does not prevent content from being indexed. Therefore, these pages could still appear in search results, but with a message explaining that a snippet could not be generated (since Google cannot crawl the pages).
There are currently websites that still rank very well in searches even though these pages are blocked by robots.txt. Note that I don’t know if these sites took manual action and removed these penalties in early May, but there are sites that block directories or subdomains via robots.txt, which I think is a valid approach. As I explained earlier, Google does not list blocking via robots.txt as a valid method of blocking content for HTML pages. Again, this is only listed for images and videos.
Here is an example of one of these websites. You can see that the site is declining over time, but is still ranking well with over 37,000 searches.
And here the website has a good ranking for a coupon query, although the content is blocked via robots.txt. That can happen too.
And for sites where a manual action has been removed by not indexing directories or subdomains, strange things can happen on that front too. First, Google must crawl these pages to display the noindex tag. Until this happens, these pages can rank just as well as they did before the manual action was taken on the site.
Next, it could be done intentionally or accidentally, but the noindex tag could be removed for a time, and during that time Google could re-index a lot of content that violates the site’s reputation abuse policy. And then that content can skyrocket again in terms of rankings (even if noindex is placed again for those pages). This can happen because Google would have to recrawl these pages to see the noindex tag again. This is actually happening right now for a site that received a manual action on May 7th.
Below you can see the visibility trend for the site that received a manual action, noindexed all content, revoked the manual action, but then removed the noindex tag for a while, causing a lot of content to be re-reloaded were indexed. And the rankings rose again. The subdomain is now ranking at 277,000 searches again… And to clarify, the pages are currently being noindexed again (after removing noindex for a while), but Google has not recrawled all of these pages and they remain in the index. I’m sure they’ll exit over time, but this is certainly a win for sales.
Again, I have no idea if this was just a technical error or if it was intentional. Regardless, it can happen that a website unexpectedly spikes again – even if it violates a spam policy. And then Google would have to pick up and manage this change manually…and the webspam team (humans) would have to decide what to do. Maybe another manual action? And maybe it affects the entire site and not just the section that violates the site’s reputation abuse policy? Who knows… but right now a site may skyrocket again when it shouldn’t.
And then there are websites that were left completely untouched despite clearly violating spam guidelines. Many, by the way, were outside the United States. Here are websites from three different countries outside the United States that violate the policy but still rank great. You never received manual actions:
This is why, in my opinion, an algorithmic approach to dealing with website reputation abuse is the way to go. Then that content will be independent of what happens from a technical SEO perspective without indexing or blocking via robots.txt algorithmically downgraded. And since it’s an algorithm, it would likely be a global change that would affect websites in many countries (and not just the United States).
Waiting for the algorithmic part of the website reputation abuse policy.
Google’s Danny Sullivan recently announced that the next comprehensive core update is only a few weeks away. And we also know that Google is actively working on the algorithmic part of enforcing the site reputation abuse spam policy. It wouldn’t shock me if dealing with site reputation abuse was part of the next major core update (or rolled out around the same time).
But while we wait, Google’s current approach of using manual measures to enforce site reputation abuse has flaws. Blocking via robots.txt does not completely solve the problem as this content can still be indexed and ranked. And the non-indexing of the content could be reversed or temporarily removed, which could result in that content being re-indexed and given a new rank. This is why an algorithmic approach is the way to go when dealing with websites that violate certain spam policies. One thing is for sure: it will be interesting to see what the next core update brings. Stay tuned.
GG