• Publish Your article
  • Editorial Policy
  • Contact
  • Advertise
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
No Result
View All Result
UK Herald
  • Home
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    • All
    • Sports
    England rugby stadium Twickenham given new name after more than 100 years in shock new deal

    England rugby stadium Twickenham given new name after more than 100 years in shock new deal

    Peter Morgan dead at 65: Former Wales and Lions rugby star who became a politician passes away as club pays tribute

    Peter Morgan dead at 65: Former Wales and Lions rugby star who became a politician passes away as club pays tribute

    Horse racing tips: Unexposed Group 1 contender can stun the big guns at 14-1

    Horse racing tips: Unexposed Group 1 contender can stun the big guns at 14-1

    Woman ‘raped seven times by two French rugby stars who left her riddled with bite marks & with horror injuries’

    Woman ‘raped seven times by two French rugby stars who left her riddled with bite marks & with horror injuries’

    Horse racing tips: Gary Moore’s charge can gain revenge after falling last time out

    Horse racing tips: Gary Moore’s charge can gain revenge after falling last time out

    Ian Buckett dead at 56: Former Wales rugby star who was ‘admired and feared equally’ dies as tributes pour in

    Ian Buckett dead at 56: Former Wales rugby star who was ‘admired and feared equally’ dies as tributes pour in

    Horse racing tips: Bash the bookies with these longshots including 9-1 fancy

    Horse racing tips: Bash the bookies with these longshots including 9-1 fancy

    Shayne Philpott dead at 58 – New Zealand All Blacks rugby legend dies after suffering ‘medical event’

    Shayne Philpott dead at 58 – New Zealand All Blacks rugby legend dies after suffering ‘medical event’

    Horse racing tips: This 7-1 chance appears to have been laid out for race he won last year

    Horse racing tips: This 7-1 chance appears to have been laid out for race he won last year

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • food
    • Health
    • Travel
    British airport announces ‘major redesign’ including new restaurants and runway views 

    British airport announces ‘major redesign’ including new restaurants and runway views 

    ‘Like the Caribbean’: Ibiza’s quiet little sister with lunar beaches and turquoise oceans 

    ‘Like the Caribbean’: Ibiza’s quiet little sister with lunar beaches and turquoise oceans 

    This street in Europe is just 50cm wide and has traffic lights so tourists don’t get stuck

    This street in Europe is just 50cm wide and has traffic lights so tourists don’t get stuck

    My holiday breakfast buffet hack is controversial but it’s a money saver

    My holiday breakfast buffet hack is controversial but it’s a money saver

    UK company launches £5,000 sex cruise — these are the rules passengers must follow

    UK company launches £5,000 sex cruise — these are the rules passengers must follow

    Ryanair calls for ‘urgent’ reform as French air strikes stretch to four days 

    Ryanair calls for ‘urgent’ reform as French air strikes stretch to four days 

    Is it safe to travel to Crete? Latest tourist advice amid wildfire evacuations

    Is it safe to travel to Crete? Latest tourist advice amid wildfire evacuations

    Is it safe to travel to Turkey? Latest Foreign Office advice as wildfires rage in Izmir

    Is it safe to travel to Turkey? Latest Foreign Office advice as wildfires rage in Izmir

    I grew up in Yorkshire — here’s my insider’s guide to a weekend in the Dales

    I grew up in Yorkshire — here’s my insider’s guide to a weekend in the Dales

    All the food and drink banned on EasyJet, Ryanair, Jet2 and TUI flights

    All the food and drink banned on EasyJet, Ryanair, Jet2 and TUI flights

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Mr. Robot
    • MotoGP 2017
    • Climate Change
    • Flat Earth
  • Health
  • Opinion
  • Science
  • Tech
  • Crypto
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Sports
  • More
    • Press Release
UK Herald
No Result
View All Result

Google’s site reputation abuse policy: the wrong solution to a real problem

by Justin Marsh
June 26, 2025
0
0
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterReddit


Google search: biggest news referrer of traffic

Google last year began cracking down on sites with strong search authority “abusing” their position by adding third-party commercial content such as an affiliate shopping arm or voucher code section.

However many legitimate publishers who had built up a strong affiliate and e-commerce revenue stream got caught up in the manual penalties being handed out, from Forbes, Fortune and CNN to AP News and the Wall Street Journal and many others.

The Association of Online Publishers has investigated the impact of the “site reputation abuse” policy and managing director Richard Reeves has written for Press Gazette outlining the findings.


When Google announced its site reputation abuse policy last year, the AOP’s recommendation was to pause its rollout until publishers had been consulted on its criteria and its impact on commercial revenues.

At the time, the policy barred third parties from running commercial pages on publisher websites with little or no oversight, to “piggyback” off the search reputation of the primary domain.

As enforcement was conducted through manual action and applied with no warning, we deemed it necessary to take a collaborative approach between Google and publishers to ensure there was a smooth transition towards acceptable practices. This did not occur. Since then, manual enforcement has continued without transparency and the definition of “third party” has been expanded to include freelancers.

Following a presentation to the AOP by Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan — which helpfully provided clarification on policy criteria and how enforcement decisions are made — we reached out to our members to respond to Google’s current action against site reputation abuse. All responses are anonymous and come from across major publishing groups in the UK.

In attempting to solve a legitimate issue, Google’s enforcement has overreached

As Nicola Agius, director of SEO and Discover at Reach, stated in her examination of Google’s policy, site reputation abuse is a legitimate user experience issue in search. An AOP member appreciated that the policy has provided a benchmark, with affiliate arms that escaped penalty acting as a minimum threshold that other publishers need to meet to succeed.

However, publishers shouldn’t have to rely on educated guesswork to make decisions that affect core commercial and editorial strategy. Without transparency and communication, publishers are left in the dark as to whether the ratio of freelance to in-house staff and output is being tracked, and how long this ratio needs to be established for Google to consider it business as normal, and thus not abuse.

There has been some inconsistency in enforcement and contradiction of the policy’s stated aims noted. One AOP member immediately cut ties with third-party coupon providers following the policy’s announcement and brought all functions entirely in-house. They still received a manual penalty and voucher traffic has never recovered. Even in-house, it appears vouchers are no longer a commercial opportunity publishers can explore.

With the definition of third party expanded to include freelancers, some AOP members have had to cancel or restructure agreements with freelancers producing commercial content. There is fear that any exploration of a new commercial vertical — typically the sort of experimental work that freelancers are often hired to do — will be dead in the water unless it is entirely in-house. Google recommends starting new domains for such ventures to avoid penalty.

This is overreach. Google is correct in that site reputation abuse can undermine the search experience, but its enforcement dictates commercial and hiring decisions that should be the sole domain of publishers, such as when and how freelancers are hired and what work they do. Due to Google’s dominance in search, publishers have no choice but to comply.

Many AOP members drew attention to the commercial impact of the policy, which has come at a time when publisher revenues and traffic are under great strain. Revenue growth for premium publishers has been treading water since the pandemic, and the situation is worse for the long tail of smaller sites that populate the open web.

An AOP member raised the vicious cycle this creates. Due to reduced revenues, publishers cut in-house staff and turn to freelancers to save costs. Then, to recover revenues, publishers turn to new commercial verticals but now can’t use freelancers. Without the staff to expand the business internally, publishers miss a growth opportunity, and freelancers go without work.

Manual enforcement must be backed up by a transparent, publisher-facing interface

Through its own efforts, Google has become a primary custodian of the online information ecosystem, an ecosystem that is currently under immense strain. Now more than ever, Google should be working with publishers to ensure the open web is a commercially viable destination for journalism. It will find no group more committed to this goal than AOP members and, through collaboration, Google can reach solutions that improve the search experience while aligning with publishers’ commercial interests.

Google has demonstrated a collaborative and consultative process for previous platform changes that affected publishers, which makes its hard line, take-it-or-leave-it approach with the Site Reputation Abuse Policy surprising and unprecedented. Premium publishers were consulted during the development of Privacy Sandbox and Core Web Vitals, with enough lead time on the latter’s rollout that they were able to adjust their systems accordingly to achieve compliance prior to launch.

It is worth reiterating that publishers recognise the need for such a policy and, as with Core Web Vitals, are aligned on the importance of protecting the user experience. However, the enforcement of the policy is currently too opaque and unevenly applied to be a suitable mechanism for exacting penalties that can result in millions of pounds in lost revenue.

The AOP proposes, at the very least, a platform through which publishers can submit information on the in-house staff, freelancers, and third parties that work on each of their domains. Through such a process, publishers would know what information they need to supply, the onus would be on these publishers to verify the veracity of such information, and enforcers of the policy would have everything they need to make an informed decision.

Most importantly, the long tail of publishers that are attempting to game Google’s algorithms — the intended target of the policy in question — would be unable to provide such information as it would expose their confliction with the policy. Premium publishers do not game their reputation, they have earned it, some over more than 200 years. Leveraging this reputation to secure ground in new verticals is not abuse, it is a legitimate and necessary strategy for revenue diversification.

This is true not just in digital publishing but across the entire business world. Few look at Virgin today and think of record stores, all because the brand leveraged its reputation and the trust it had built with its customers to establish airlines, hotels, and media businesses. Had Virgin stuck to its retail origins, it would no longer exist.

Google itself is not simply a search engine, it built on its name as a tech innovator to expand into phones, laptops, and home automation. It was not expected — or mandated by an external party — to launch an entirely distinct brand to do so, nor would it have been sound business sense.

The AOP remains hopeful that a solution can be achieved that allows both parties to achieve their aims, and we will continue to advocate for constructive dialogue between our members and our partners at Google.

The post Google’s site reputation abuse policy: the wrong solution to a real problem appeared first on Press Gazette.



Source link

Related Posts

PR agency sells AI tool which sends out automated expert comment to journalists

PR agency sells AI tool which sends out automated expert comment to journalists

by Justin Marsh
July 21, 2025
0

A PR agency is selling an AI tool that automatically answers pitches from journalists on services such as ResponseSource, HARO and Qwoted. The AI tool, called Synapse (not be confused with PR...

How social and video drive revenue for UK podcast network Crowd

How social and video drive revenue for UK podcast network Crowd

by Justin Marsh
July 16, 2025
0

“We don’t really call them podcasts any more,” says Mike Carr, CEO of one of Europe’s fastest-growing podcast networks. Carr co-founded Crowd in Manchester in 2020 along with three other ex-BBC Sports...

Journalist says 4,000 fake AI news websites created to game Google algorithms

Journalist says 4,000 fake AI news websites created to game Google algorithms

by Justin Marsh
July 11, 2025
0

More than 4,000 fake news websites powered by generative AI have been set up to game Google Discover and search, according to award-winning French journalist Jean-Marc Manach. The sites are largely in...

News diary 7-13 July: 7/7 bombings 20th anniversary, Netanyahu at White House, Macron state visit to UK

by Justin Marsh
July 6, 2025
0

A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda next week, from the team at Foresight News. Leading the week Monday (July 7): St Paul’s service to mark the 20th...

UK and US publishers back move to block AI scrapers by default

UK and US publishers back move to block AI scrapers by default

by Justin Marsh
July 1, 2025
0

Internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare is now blocking all AI scrapers accessing content by default in an industry first. The move has been backed by more than a dozen major news and media...

Top Invoice Finance Providers in the UK for 2025

Top Invoice Finance Providers in the UK for 2025

by Clara White
June 25, 2025
0

In today's fast-paced business environment, maintaining healthy cash flow is crucial for companies of all sizes. For many UK businesses, invoice finance has emerged as a vital solution to bridge the working...

Next Post
Nigel Farage on track to become PM with ‘historic’ majority, new poll indicates

Nigel Farage on track to become PM with ‘historic’ majority, new poll indicates

Popular News

‘Deluded’: Conservatives condemned after strategist says party has ‘done the apologies’

‘Deluded’: Conservatives condemned after strategist says party has ‘done the apologies’

July 22, 2025
British airport announces ‘major redesign’ including new restaurants and runway views 

British airport announces ‘major redesign’ including new restaurants and runway views 

July 21, 2025
PR agency sells AI tool which sends out automated expert comment to journalists

PR agency sells AI tool which sends out automated expert comment to journalists

July 21, 2025
Keir Starmer could learn to fear a left insurgency

Keir Starmer could learn to fear a left insurgency

July 20, 2025
MPs to vote on making Premier League games free-to-air

MPs to vote on making Premier League games free-to-air

July 18, 2025
Best hot hatchbacks to buy in 2025

Best hot hatchbacks to buy in 2025

July 18, 2025
‘Like the Caribbean’: Ibiza’s quiet little sister with lunar beaches and turquoise oceans 

‘Like the Caribbean’: Ibiza’s quiet little sister with lunar beaches and turquoise oceans 

July 18, 2025
UK Herald

All Rights Reserved © UK HERALD - The Voice of UK

Important Links

  • Publish Your article
  • Editorial Policy
  • Contact
  • Advertise

...

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Politics
  • UK News
  • Business
  • Science
  • National
  • Entertainment
  • Gaming
  • Sports
  • Fashion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Health
  • Food

All Rights Reserved © UK HERALD - The Voice of UK