In November, we told you about Google’s latest Algorithm Update.
The roll-out is now complete, and Google’s taken one kind of surprising and long-overdue action: Cracking down on parasite SEO.
Google’s updated Site Reputation Abuse policy means that Forbes Marketplace, which also manages sections of the CNN and USA Today websites, has taken a hit.
Forbes Marketplace is probably the worst offender when it comes to parasite SEO, and Google’s finally taken action.
Google now views publishing on sites like that as an attempt to manipulate the algorithms, hence this change in policy:
“Site reputation abuse is the practice of publishing third-party pages on a site in an attempt to abuse search rankings by taking advantage of the host site’s ranking signals.”
But . . . Isn’t this what backlinking and linkbuilding is all about?
Yes, in a way it is.
So, what does this mean for SEOs and linkbuilding?
What does Google’s site reputation abuse policy change mean for SEOs and linkbuilding?
Google has long-since known about this “parasite SEO” tactic. Although it isn’t “black hat” exactly, it’s borderline not ethical.
However, it’s been tolerated until now. Maybe this was a long-term decision that Google hadn’t dealt with yet, or maybe it was a result of the disastrous HCU update earlier in the year.
After destroying 100s of site’s traffic, Google took action to support the little guys by penalizing the big guys, such as Forbes Marketplace, CNN, and USA Today.
Here’s why Google took this action: “Earlier this year, as part of our work to fight spam and deliver a great Search experience, we launched a spam policy to combat site reputation abuse. This is a tactic where third-party content is published on a host site in an attempt to take advantage of the host’s already-established ranking signals. The goal of this tactic is for the content to rank better than it could otherwise on a different site, and leads to a bad search experience for users.”
“Since launching the policy, we’ve reviewed situations where there might be varying degrees of first-party involvement, such as cooperation with white-label services, licensing agreements, partial ownership agreements, and other complex business arrangements. Our evaluation of numerous cases has shown that no amount of first-party involvement alters the fundamental third-party nature of the content or the unfair, exploitative nature of attempting to take advantage of the host’s sites ranking signals.”
The key change to the policy is this: “Site reputation abuse is the practice of publishing third-party pages on a site in an attempt to abuse search rankings by taking advantage of the host site’s ranking signals.”
As Google has always said: “We encourage site owners to familiarize themselves with this updated policy and focus on building high-quality websites that prioritize content created to benefit people, not to gain search engine rankings.”
What are the potential impacts on SEO Strategies?
Link building practices
As we’ve always said, high-quality, relevant links over manipulative linking schemes will win in the end. Attempts to spam Google and other search engines are never going to work. Google is too smart.
Risks of using spammy or automated link-building techniques aren’t worth it. You need to work with a link-building partner that delivers high-quality, relevant links and aren’t using spam tactics to achieve those results.
Online reputation management
Site reputation directly affects rankings and trust signals. So, if you are using “parasite SEO” tactics on a third-party site, then you’re going to get caught and that will have a negative impact on your website’s ankings and trust signals.
It’s also worth noting that ser-generated content and third-party reviews are more effective at maintaining credibility than spam link-building tactics.
4 Best Practices for SEOs Post-Policy Update
Based on this policy update, these are the approaches we recommend (it’s what we’ve always done and what we’d always say clients should do to achieve best-practice results for SEO and link-building):
- Prioritize ethical link-building strategies
- Focus on acquiring links naturally through valuable content.
- Build partnerships with reputable sites.
- Conduct regular audits of your backlink profile
- Tools and techniques for identifying harmful links.
- Remove or disavow links that might harm reputation.
- Enhance content quality and authenticity
- Create user-focused, informative, and original content.
- Avoid duplicate or thin content that might degrade site credibility.
- Monitor site reputation metrics
- Tools and KPIs for tracking reputation and trustworthiness.
- Address negative reviews or mentions proactively.
What do we recommend for SEO and Linkbuilding in 2025?
As always, we recommend the following (with a new recommendation for AIO):
- Think about the content you are or want to produce:
- Can you have SEO content created that will help you show up in AI Overviews? If so, then that will help you rank higher and bring in more traffic.
- Find out how to improve the SEO of your website and content with an SEO Audit and Topical Map.
- This will also show you what Technical SEO fixes are required.
- Create a link building strategy that will increase your business’s backlink profile, which will help you rank higher in search engines, bringing in more traffic and sales leads.
- Create an SEO content marketing strategy that will have the same impact, improving your website’s DA, CTR, search rankings, traffic, and sales leads.
- To maximize results: Combine a link building strategy with SEO content marketing and on-page optimizations.
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