Jonathan Jones attended the Google Search Central Live event in Zurich last week and posted excellent and detailed notes about the event, including a bit more on the more often core updates. But he also covered how Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison, said how Google thinks about site reputation and how treating some sites within a site, as a solution to this problem.
Jonathan Jones quoted Sullivan as saying:
If you've built up site signals based on first-party content and then third-party content takes advantage of those signals, it creates confusion for users. Treating distinct areas as 'sites within a site' can help address this issue.
and
If you're venturing into something entirely different, consider creating a separate site to build its own reputation and identity.
Jonathan explained on X:
At the Google Search Central Conference, Danny Sullivan tackled the challenge of balancing first-party trust signals with third-party content:"If third-party content takes advantage of first-party signals, it creates confusion for users."
The solution? Treat distinct areas as "sites within a site" or even move them off-domain to build separate trust and identity.
Thoughts? Sites within a site—smart strategy or a logistical nightmare?
I mean, this sounds a lot like the starkly different content algorithm of sorts that Google uses for some of these issues. We also know the site reputation abuse policy is still only handled with manual actions and is not algorithmic yet.
"Sites within a site"—helpful or a hassle?
— Mr Jonathan Jones (@Jonny_J_) December 16, 2024
At the Google Search Central Conference, Danny Sullivan tackled the challenge of balancing first-party trust signals with third-party content:
"If third-party content takes advantage of first-party signals, it creates confusion for… pic.twitter.com/pnmA8ZpOBG
I recommend reading through his full post of the event.
Forum discussion at X.
