Google updated their report spam documentation to make it clear that they may use reported spam to initiate manual actions against websites that are found to be spamming. This is a change in policy that makes it easier for site owners and SEOs to report actual spam.
Change In Spam Report Policy
The previous spam reporting documentation previously said that Google would not use the spam reports for taking actions against websites.
This wording was mostly removed:
“While Google does not use these reports to take direct action against violations, these reports still play a significant role in helping us understand how to improve our spam detection systems that protect our search results.”
That part is narrowed to emphasize that the submitted spam reports help improve their spam detection systems:
“These reports help us understand how to improve the spam detection systems that protect our search results.”
More Aggressive Approach To Spam
Google also added new wording to make it clear that Google may use the spam reports to take manual actions against websites. Google used to refer to manual actions in terms related to penalization but it may be that the word “penalization” carries connotations of punishment which isn’t what Google is doing when they remove a site from the index. It’s not a punishment, it’s just a removal from the index.
Google’s new wording makes it clear that taking manual action against reported sites are now an option:
“Google may use your report to take manual action against violations. If we issue a manual action, we send whatever you write in the submission report verbatim to the site owner to help them understand the context of the manual action. We don’t include any other identifying information when we notify the site owner; as long as you avoid including personal information in the open text field, the report remains anonymous.”
Everything else about the page is the same, including the button for filing a spam report.
Screenshot: Spam Report Button
Clicking the “Report spam” button leads to a form that now can lead to a manual action:
Screenshot: Spam Report Form
Is This Good News For SEOs?
Site owners and SEOs who are sick of seeing spammy sites dominating the search results may want to check out the new page and start reporting actual spammy websites. Nobody really enjoys spam and now there’s something users can do about it.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/NLshop
