Spam policies are Google’s rules about which techniques count as spam because they deceive users or manipulate Search systems. They are part of Google Search Essentials. Sites that violate them “may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all.”
Scope
The policies apply to Google web search. Their introduction names attempts to manipulate generative AI responses in Google Search as part of the problem.
Which practices do the policies list?
Google’s list includes cloaking, doorway abuse, expired domain abuse, hacked content, hidden text and links, keyword stuffing, link spam, machine-generated traffic, malicious practices, misleading functionality, scaled content abuse, scraping, the site reputation policy for third-party content, sneaky redirects, thin affiliation, and user-generated spam. Separate sections cover legal and personal information removals, policy circumvention, and scams.
Consequences
Google detects violations with automated systems and, as needed, human review that can result in a manual action. Manual actions are reported in the Search Console manual actions report.
Example
A page shows search engines a travel article and shows visitors a pharmacy offer. This is cloaking and falls under the spam policies.
Sources
- Spam policies for Google web search – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Manual actions report – Search Console Helpsupport.google.com
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