Google stops EEA demotions for site reputation

Google still flags reputation-abuse sites. In Europe, those flags no longer shove the pages down in search. The Search Quality team laid out the split in a Search Central blog post, effective August 30. The 2024 site reputation policy stays on the books. What changes is the effect of a manual action by region.

Google introduced the policy "to stop a practice where third-party content is published on a trusted website just to exploit that site's good reputation to rank higher in Search." As the company puts it, "beginning August 30, manual actions applied under our site reputation policy will have a different effect for those searching in the EEA than outside of it."

For users outside the European Economic Area, nothing moves. A manual action "will directly affect search results for the portion of the site affected," and "as before, the rest of the site won't be affected." Inside the EEA, Google says "the impact of the manual action won't apply." The replacement is not a clean pass: "The affected section of the site may be separated in our systems so that, over time, it ranks independently from the rest of the site."

The paperwork does not disappear in Europe. Owners "will continue to be notified within Search Console when a manual action is applied," reconsideration requests remain open, and "eligible sites will, following the reconsideration request, also have the opportunity to bring disputes to mediation." A site can receive, see, and dispute a manual action whose ranking impact never reaches EEA searchers.

Because pages are viewed everywhere, Google warns that "any given page might have a manual action taken on it, but that change will only affect search results shown to users outside the EEA." One URL, one live manual action, two different search realities depending on where the searcher sits.

Google says the adjustment comes "following discussion with the European Commission," and it kept a note of dissent in the same post: "While we remain concerned that an overbroad application of the DMA could prevent us from addressing real threats to the integrity of our search results, we believe this approach enables us to combat attempts to manipulate search results for our users." Search Engine Roundtable read the change as Google bending enforcement to meet EU pressure while keeping the policy on the books.

Some offers on this page may be paid placements or contain affiliate links.