Google has announced a change in its approach to search spam enforcement across Europe to address regulatory concerns from the European Union (EU). This policy adjustment aims to mitigate the risk of significant antitrust penalties.
The shift comes in response to complaints from digital publishers about the enforcement of Google’s site reputation abuse policy. This policy was designed to combat ‘parasite SEO,’ a practice where third parties host content on reputable websites to take advantage of those sites’ high search rankings.
The first is that starting August 30, manual search demotions under the site reputation policy will no longer affect queries or content within the 27 EU member states, along with Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein (the European Economic Area). To address regulator scrutiny, Google confirmed that its manual ranking penalties will be suspended across European markets.
European competition officials stepped in after market monitoring showed that Google’s algorithm and manual actions were actively lowering the search rankings of legitimate news outlets and publishers whenever their platforms featured sponsored commercial partner content, according to a report by news agency Reuters. The second is that the policy adjustment applies exclusively within the EEA, with standard enforcement rules continuing unchanged across all other international regions.