Google Spam Policies

Google spam policies are the published rules that describe practices Google treats as spam in its search results. They cover manipulative tactics such as cloaking, link schemes and scaled content abuse. Sites that break them can rank lower or be removed from results, either automatically or through a manual action.

Written by Paul Hoda, SEO consultant since 2005. Last updated 8 November 2026.

What the spam policies are

Google’s spam policies form part of Google Search Essentials, the guidelines that replaced the older Webmaster Guidelines in 2022. Search Essentials has three parts: technical requirements, spam policies and key best practices. The spam policies list behaviours that can lead to a site ranking lower or not appearing at all.

Main spam practices

The policies cover a long list of practices. The main ones are:

  • Cloaking: showing search engines different content from users. See cloaking.
  • Doorways: pages made to rank for similar searches that funnel users elsewhere.
  • Expired domain abuse: buying an expired domain to host low-value content that trades on its old reputation.
  • Hacked content: content placed on a site without permission through a security weakness.
  • Hidden text and links: content placed only for search engines to see.
  • Keyword stuffing: filling pages with keywords to manipulate rankings. See keyword stuffing.
  • Link spam: buying, selling or exchanging links for ranking purposes, often called link schemes.
  • Machine-generated traffic: sending automated queries to Google.
  • Malware and misleading functionality: software or features that harm or deceive users.
  • Scaled content abuse: mass-producing pages mainly to manipulate rankings, whether by AI, people or both. See scaled content abuse.
  • Scraping: republishing other sites’ content without adding value.
  • Sneaky redirects: sending users somewhere different from what search engines see.
  • Site reputation abuse: publishing third-party pages on a site to exploit its ranking signals. See site reputation abuse.
  • Thin affiliation: affiliate pages that copy product details without adding value.
  • User-generated spam: spam added by users through comments, forums or profiles.

The policies also cover scams and fraud, attempts to get around the policies, and sites that receive many valid legal or personal information removal requests.

How Google enforces them

Google enforces the policies in two ways:

  • Automated systems: SpamBrain, Google’s AI-based spam prevention system, and other algorithms detect spam and demote or remove it.
  • Manual review: Google’s reviewers can issue manual actions against pages or whole sites, which appear in Search Console.

Google also releases spam updates from time to time to improve its automated detection.

How to stay compliant

  1. Read the current spam policies on Google Search Central, as they change over time.
  2. Audit third-party content, sponsored sections and affiliate pages on your site.
  3. Make sure paid or sponsored links use the sponsored or nofollow link attribute.
  4. Secure your site to prevent hacked content and user-generated spam.
  5. Check the Manual actions and Security issues reports in Search Console regularly.

Further reading: Google’s spam policies for web search.

Key Takeaways

  • Google’s spam policies define practices that can lower or remove a site from results.
  • They form part of Google Search Essentials.
  • Key policies cover cloaking, link spam, scaled content and site reputation abuse.
  • Enforcement is through automated systems like SpamBrain and through manual actions.
  • The policies change, so check the current version rather than old advice.

Related Terms

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