Spam policies for Google web search

In the context of Google Search, spam is web content that's designed to deceive users or manipulate our Search systems in order to rank highly. Our spam policies help protect users and improve the quality of Search results. To be eligible to appear in Google web search results (web pages, images, videos, news content or other material that Google finds from across the web), content shouldn't violate Google Search's overall policies or the spam policies listed on this page. These policies apply to all web search results, including those from Google's own properties.

We detect policy-violating practices both through automated systems and, as needed, human review that can result in a manual action. Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all.

If you believe that a site is violating Google's spam policies, let us know by filing a search quality user report. We're focused on developing scalable and automated solutions to problems, and we'll use these reports to further improve our spam detection systems.

Our policies cover common spam practices, but Google may act against any type of spam practices we detect.

Cloaking

Cloaking refers to the practice of presenting different content to users and search engines with the intent to manipulate search rankings and mislead users. Examples of cloaking include:

  • Showing a page about travel destinations to search engines while showing a page about discount drugs to users
  • Inserting text or keywords into a page only when the user agent that is requesting the page is a search engine, not a human visitor

If your site uses technologies that search engines have difficulty accessing, like JavaScript or images, see our recommendations for making that content accessible to search engines and users without cloaking.

If a site is hacked, it's not uncommon for the hacker to use cloaking to make the hack harder for the site owner to detect. Read more about fixing hacked sites and avoiding being hacked.

If you operate a paywall or a content-gating mechanism, we don't consider this to be cloaking if Google can see the full content of what's behind the paywall just like any person who has access to the gated material and if you follow our Flexible Sampling general guidance.

Doorway abuse

Doorway abuse is when sites or pages are created to rank for specific, similar search queries. They lead users to intermediate pages that are not as useful as the final destination. Examples of doorway abuse include:

  • Having multiple websites with slight variations to the URL and home page to maximize their reach for any specific query
  • Having multiple domain names or pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page
  • Generating pages to funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of a site
  • Creating substantially similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browseable hierarchy

Expired domain abuse

Expired domain abuse is where an expired domain name is purchased and repurposed primarily to manipulate search rankings by hosting content that provides little to no value to users. Illustrative examples include, but are not limited to:

  • Affiliate content on a site previously used by a government agency
  • Commercial medical products being sold on a site previously used by a non-profit medical charity
  • Casino-related content on a former elementary school site

Hacked content

Hacked content is any content placed on a site without permission, due to vulnerabilities in a site's security. Hacked content gives poor search results to our users and can potentially install malicious content on their machines. Examples of hacking include:

  • Code injection: When hackers gain access to your website, they might try to inject malicious code into existing pages on your site. This often takes the form of malicious JavaScript injected directly into the site, or into iframes.
  • Page injection: Sometimes, due to security flaws, hackers are able to add new pages to your site that contain spammy or malicious content. These pages are often meant to manipulate search engines or to attempt phishing. Your existing pages might not show signs of hacking, but these newly-created pages could harm your site's visitors or your site's performance in search results.
  • Content injection: Hackers might also try to subtly manipulate existing pages on your site. Their goal is to add content to your site that search engines can see but which may be harder for you and your users to spot. This can involve adding hidden links or hidden text to a page by using CSS or HTML, or it can involve more complex changes like cloaking.
  • Redirects: Hackers might inject malicious code to your website that redirects some users to harmful or spammy pages. The kind of redirect sometimes depends on the referrer, user agent, or device. For example, clicking a URL in Google Search results could redirect you to a suspicious page, but there is no redirect when you visit the same URL directly from a browser.

Here are our tips on fixing hacked sites and avoiding being hacked.

Hidden text and link abuse

Hidden text or link abuse is the practice of placing content on a page in a way solely to manipulate search engines and not to be easily viewable by human visitors. Examples of hidden text or link abuse include:

  • Using white text on a white background
  • Hiding text behind an image
  • Using CSS to position text off-screen
  • Setting the font size or opacity to 0
  • Hiding a link by only linking one small character (for example, a hyphen in the middle of a paragraph)

There are many web design elements today that utilize showing and hiding content in a dynamic way to improve user experience; these elements don't violate our policies:

  • Accordion or tabbed content that toggle between hiding and showing additional content
  • Slideshow or slider that cycles between several images or text paragraphs
  • Tooltip or similar text that displays additional content when users interact with over an element
  • Text that's only accessible to screen readers and is intended to improve the experience for those using screen readers

Keyword stuffing

Keyword stuffing refers to the practice of filling a web page with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate rankings in Google Search results. Often these keywords appear in a list or group, unnaturally, or out of context. Examples of keyword stuffing include:

  • Lists of phone numbers without substantial added value
  • Blocks of text that list cities and regions that a web page is trying to rank for
  • Repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural. For example:
    Unlimited app store credit. There are so many sites that claim to offer app store credit for $0 but they're all fake and always mess up with users looking for unlimited app store credits. You can get limitless credits for app store right here on this website. Visit our unlimited app store credit page and get it today!

Link spam is the practice of creating links to or from a site primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings. The following are examples of link spam:

  • Buying or selling links for ranking purposes. This includes:
    • Exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links
    • Exchanging goods or services for links
    • Sending someone a product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link
  • Excessive link exchanges ("Link to me and I'll link to you") or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking
  • Using automated programs or services to create links to your site
  • Requiring a link as part of a Terms of Service, contract, or similar arrangement without allowing a third-party content owner the choice of qualifying the outbound link
  • Text advertisements or text links that don't block ranking credit
  • Advertorials or native advertising where payment is received for articles that include links that pass ranking credit, or links with optimized anchor text in articles, guest posts, or press releases distributed on other sites. For example:
    There are many wedding rings on the market. If you want to have a wedding, you will have to pick the best ring. You will also need to buy flowers and a wedding dress.
  • Low-quality directory or bookmark site links
  • Keyword-rich, hidden, or low-quality links embedded in widgets that are distributed across various sites
  • Widely distributed links in the footers or templates of various sites
  • Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature, for example:
    Thanks, that's great info!
    - Paul
    paul's pizza san diego pizza best pizza san diego
  • Creating low-value content primarily for the purposes of manipulating linking and ranking signals

Google does understand that buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web for advertising and sponsorship purposes. It's not a violation of our policies to have such links as long as they are qualified with a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute value to the <a> tag.

Machine-generated traffic

Machine-generated traffic (also called automated traffic) refers to the practice of sending automated queries to Google. This includes scraping results for rank-checking purposes or other types of automated access to Google Search conducted without express permission. Machine-generated traffic consumes resources and interferes with our ability to best serve users. Such activities violate our spam policies and the Google Terms of Service.

Malware and malicious practices

Google checks to see whether websites host malware or unwanted software that negatively affects the user experience.

Malware is any software or mobile application specifically designed to harm a computer, a mobile device, the software it's running, or its users. Malware exhibits malicious behavior that can include installing software without user consent and installing harmful software such as viruses. Site owners sometimes don't realize that their downloadable files are considered malware, so these binaries might be hosted inadvertently.

Unwanted software is an executable file or mobile application that engages in behavior that is deceptive, unexpected, or that negatively affects the user's browsing or computing experience. Examples include software that switches your home page or other browser settings to ones you don't want, or apps that leak private and personal information without proper disclosure.

Site owners should make sure they don't violate the Unwanted Software Policy and follow our guidelines.

Misleading functionality

Misleading functionality refers to the practice of intentionally creating sites that trick users into thinking they would be able to access some content or services but in reality can't. Examples of misleading functionality include:

  • A site with a fake generator that claims to provide app store credit but doesn't actually provide the credit
  • A site that claims to provide certain functionality (for example, PDF merge, countdown timer, online dictionary service), but intentionally leads users to deceptive ads rather than providing the claimed services

Scaled content abuse

Scaled content abuse is when many pages are generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users. This abusive practice is typically focused on creating large amounts of unoriginal content that provides little to no value to users, no matter how it's created.

Examples of scaled content abuse include, but are not limited to:

  • Using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users
  • Scraping feeds, search results, or other content to generate many pages (including through automated transformations like synonymizing, translating, or other obfuscation techniques), where little value is provided to users
  • Stitching or combining content from different web pages without adding value
  • Creating multiple sites with the intent of hiding the scaled nature of the content
  • Creating many pages where the content makes little or no sense to a reader but contains search keywords

If you're hosting such content on your site, exclude it from Search.

Scraping

Scraping refers to the practice of taking content from other sites, often through automated means, and hosting it with the purpose of manipulating search rankings. Examples of abusive scraping include:

  • Republishing content from other sites without adding any original content or value, or even citing the original source
  • Copying content from other sites, modify it only slightly (for example, by substituting synonyms or using automated techniques), and republish it
  • Reproducing content feeds from other sites without providing some type of unique benefit to the user
  • Creating sites dedicated to embedding or compiling content, such as videos, images, or other media from other sites, without substantial added value to the user

Sneaky redirects

Redirecting is the act of sending a visitor to a different URL than the one they initially requested. Sneaky redirecting is the practice of doing this maliciously in order to either show users and search engines different content or show users unexpected content that does not fulfill their original needs. Examples of sneaky redirects include:

  • Showing search engines one type of content while redirecting users to something significantly different
  • Showing desktop users a normal page while redirecting mobile users to a completely different spam domain

While sneaky redirection is a type of spam, there are many legitimate, non-spam reasons to redirect one URL to another. Examples of legitimate redirects include:

  • Moving your site to a new address
  • Consolidating several pages into one
  • Redirecting users to an internal page once they are logged in

When examining if a redirect is sneaky, consider whether or not the redirect is intended to deceive either the users or search engines. Learn more about how to appropriately employ redirects on your site.

Site reputation abuse

Site reputation abuse is when third-party pages are published with little or no first-party oversight or involvement, where the purpose is to manipulate search rankings by taking advantage of the first-party site's ranking signals. Such third-party pages include sponsored, advertising, partner, or other third-party pages that are typically independent of a host site's main purpose or produced without close oversight or involvement of the host site.

Close oversight or involvement is when the first-party hosting site is directly producing or generating unique content (for example, via staff directly employed by the first-party, or freelancers working for staff of the first-party site). It is not working with third-party services (such as "white-label" or "turnkey") that focus on redistributing content with the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings.

Examples of site reputation abuse include, but are not limited to:

  • An educational site hosting a page about reviews of payday loans written by a third-party that distributes the same page to other sites across the web, with the main purpose of manipulating search rankings
  • A medical site hosting a third-party page about "best casinos" that's designed primarily to manipulate search rankings, with little to no involvement from the medical site
  • A movie review site hosting third-party pages about topics that would be confusing to users to find on a movie review site (such as "ways to buy followers on social media sites", the "best fortune teller sites", and the "best essay writing services"), where the purpose is to manipulate search rankings
  • A sports site hosting a page written by a third-party about "workout supplements reviews", where the sports site's editorial staff had little to no involvement in the content and the main purpose of hosting the page is to manipulate search rankings
  • A news site hosting coupons provided by a third-party with little to no oversight or involvement from the hosting site, and where the main purpose is to manipulate search rankings

If you're hosting pages that violate this policy, exclude that third-party content from Search indexing.

Examples that are NOT considered site reputation abuse include:

  • Wire service or press release service sites
  • News publications that have syndicated news content from other news publications
  • Sites designed to allow user-generated content, such as a forum website or comment sections
  • Columns, opinion pieces, articles, and other work of an editorial nature where there is close involvement or review by the host site
  • Third-party content (for example, "advertorial" or "native advertising" type pages) that's produced with close involvement of the host site, where the purpose is to share content directly to readers (such as through promotion within the publication itself), rather than hosting the content to manipulate search rankings
  • Embedding third-party ad units throughout a page or using affiliate links throughout a page, with links treated appropriately
  • Coupons that are sourced directly from merchants and other businesses that serve consumers

Thin affiliation

Thin affiliation is the practice of publishing content with product affiliate links where the product descriptions and reviews are copied directly from the original merchant without any original content or added value.

Affiliate pages can be considered thin if they are a part of a program that distributes its content across a network of affiliates without providing additional value. These sites often appear to be cookie-cutter sites or templates with the same or similar content replicated within the same site or across multiple domains or languages. If a Search results page returned several of these sites, all with the same content, thin affiliate pages would create a frustrating user experience.

Not every site that participates in an affiliate program is a thin affiliate. Good affiliate sites add value by offering meaningful content or features. Examples of good affiliate pages include offering additional information about price, original product reviews, rigorous testing and ratings, navigation of products or categories, and product comparisons.

User-generated spam

User-generated spam is spammy content added to a site by users through a channel intended for user content. Often site owners are unaware of the spammy content. Examples of spammy user-generated content include:

  • Spammy accounts on hosting services that anyone can register for
  • Spammy posts on forum threads
  • Comment spam on blogs
  • Spammy files uploaded to file hosting platforms

Here are several tips on how to prevent abuse of your site's public areas. Here are our tips on fixing hacked sites and avoiding being hacked.

Other practices that can lead to demotion or removal

When we receive a high volume of valid copyright removal requests involving a given site, we are able to use that to demote other content from the site in our results. This way, if there is other infringing content, people are less likely to encounter it versus the original content. We apply similar demotion signals to complaints involving defamation, counterfeit goods, and court-ordered removals. In the case of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), we always remove such content when it is identified and we demote all content from sites with a high proportion of CSAM content.

Personal information removals

If we process a high volume of personal information removals involving a site with exploitative removal practices, we demote other content from the site in our results. We also look to see if the same pattern of behavior is happening with other sites and, if so, apply demotions to content on those sites. We may apply similar demotion practices for sites that receive a high volume of removals of content involving doxxing content, explicit personal imagery created or shared without consent, or explicit non-consensual fake content.

Policy circumvention

If a site continues to engage in actions intended to bypass our spam policies or content policies for Google Search, we may take appropriate action which may include restricting or removing eligibility for some of our search features (for example, Top Stories, Discover) and taking broader action in Google Search (for example, removing more sections of a site from Search results). Circumvention includes but is not limited to:

  • Using existing or creating new subdomains, subdirectories, or sites with the intention of continuing to violate our policies
  • Using other methods intended to continue distributing content or engaging in a behavior that aims to violate our policies

Scam and fraud

Scam and fraud come in many forms, including but not limited to impersonating an official business or service through imposter sites, intentionally displaying false information about a business or service, or otherwise attracting users to a site on false pretenses. Using automated systems, Google seeks to identify pages with scammy or fraudulent content and prevent them from showing up in Google Search results. Examples of online scams and fraud include:

  • Impersonating a well-known business or service provider to trick users into paying money to the wrong party
  • Creating deceptive sites pretending to provide official customer support on behalf of a legitimate business or provide fake contact information of such business