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Google is changing its spam policy in Europe after facing pressure over rules that may have hurt some publishers in search results. The change is part of an effort to address concerns raised by European regulators and avoid a possible antitrust fine. The issue was with parasite SEO, where sites often post third-party content to gain a host site’s SEO signals. Google focused on lowering the rankings of websites that use third-party content.
The rule was meant to stop websites from using external content, mainly to improve search rankings. However, some publishers said the rule could also affect genuine websites that work with third-party content. Google is now changing the policy and mentioned that, from August 30 any manual actions taken to demote sites would not apply to users in the 27 EU nations, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
Regarding the rule change, EU Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said, “Thanks to the DMA, Google Search will no longer demote press publications solely for hosting third-party content. The Commission will now monitor the application of the new policy to ensure it is compliant with the DMA.”
The change could be important for publishers whose rankings dropped after the policy was implemented. Some websites may now have a chance to recover lost search traffic if their content is no longer subject to the same rule.
Still, the change does not mean all websites will return to their old rankings. Google will continue to use other rules to fight spam and decide which pages deserve higher positions.
The move also highlights the growing pressure on Google in Europe. Search traffic is important for publishers, and even a small ranking drop can affect visits and ad income.
Google’s policy change may help calm the dispute, but the wider debate is not over. The company must now find a balance between fighting low-quality content and treating
