Site reputation abuse

Google's site reputation policy (introduced March 2024, enforced from 5 May 2024) covers third-party content published on a host site mainly because of the host's established ranking signals, so it ranks better than it could on its own. Having third-party content is not itself a violation; wire services, syndicated news, UGC, editorial columns, advertorials aimed at readers and appropriately marked affiliate links are listed as fine. Enforcement is by human review and manual action, weighing how integrated the content is: consistent presentation, quality, stated authorship and responsibility, and whether it appears near-identically on other sites. Since 30 August 2026 a manual action under this policy affects only results shown outside the EEA; inside the EEA the section may instead be ranked separately from the main domain. (Google's November 2024 wording that first-party involvement or oversight does not exempt content has been replaced by these criteria.)