Google Goes After Spam Practices vs Spam Content - Doc Change

Mar 27, 2025 - 7:41 am 1 by

Google Spam Cop Desk Writing

Google made a really small change to its spam policies documentation to say, "In the context of Google Search, spam refers to techniques used to deceive users or manipulate our Search systems into ranking content highly."

It previously read, "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."

The change is subtle but here is a screenshot - so you can see it more clearly:

Google Spam Policy Doc Change

Why the change? Well, Google has been making these subtle changes in their docs for some time. As Glenn Gabe noted from the Google Search Central Live NYC event - Danny Sullivan said that Google is updating its documents to make it clearer that Google looks at "spam practices rather than spam content."

As Glenn Gabe shared on X, Sullivan "emphasized that Google's spam policies are based on curbing abusive "practices" than than types of content. This change to the doc makes sense based on that. See my photo from the Google Search Live event last week in NYC."

Google Slide Spam Practices

Just one more note, around "intent."

So this change makes sense based on that but there isn't really all that much new to learn from this change.

Forum discussion at X.

 

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