What is Google's new spam policy?

[officialgkis]

Can anyone provide details about the recent updates to Google's spam policy? How might it affect digital marketing and SEO practices?

 

[azgold]

Are you referring to shielded emails? If so, I did find this article that has suggestions: What Apple’s New ‘Hide My Email’ Means for Marketers & Their Email Campaigns | Squarebird

Apparently, Google is working on something similar and they also are doing something to reduce threats in the Play Store apps.

Sorry, that's all I know, I don't keep up anymore but thought I'd share that little bit.

 

[John Blant]

Google's spam updates are basically their way of saying, "Don't try to fool us." If you're creating quality content and playing by the rules, you're good to go. But if your practices look like "black hat SEO magic," you might want to rethink your strategy, or risk getting booted from the rankings

 

[officialgkis]

Google's spam updates are basically their way of saying, "Don't try to fool us." If you're creating quality content and playing by the rules, you're good to go. But if your practices look like "black hat SEO magic," you might want to rethink your strategy, or risk getting booted from the rankings

Thank You “John Blant” for taking the time to explain Google’s spam updates. I appreciate the clear and concise information. This is very helpful for understanding how best to approach SEO and avoid any potential penalties.

 

[azgold]

Google's spam updates are basically their way of saying, "Don't try to fool us." If you're creating quality content and playing by the rules, you're good to go. But if your practices look like "black hat SEO magic," you might want to rethink your strategy, or risk getting booted from the rankings

That has always been their policy, at least since they started paying attention to such things, maybe ten or more years ago. I guess they have to remind folks, sometimes. The policy makes perfect sense, they only want 'white hat' methods and quality.

 

[simhakidsden]

Google's 2025 spam policy focuses on removing manipulative SEO practices, such as fake reviews and shady backlinks, rather than just spammy content. Violations can lead to ranking drops or removal from search results.

 

[kimback]

In my opinion, the policy update primarily focuses on cracking down harder on AI-generated, low-quality content, domain abuse, and link manipulation. They’re pushing for content that offers genuine value to users.

 

[brodyluton]

In Google Search, spam refers to tactics meant to deceive users or manipulate our systems to unfairly boost a page's ranking. Our spam policies are designed to protect users and ensure high-quality search results.

To appear in Google Search, whether it's web pages, images, videos, news, or other content found across the web, content must follow both Google’s general Search policies and the spam-specific policies outlined here. These rules apply to all web search results, including those from Google’s own services.

 

[T J Tutor]

In Google Search, spam refers to tactics meant to deceive users or manipulate our systems to unfairly boost a page's ranking. Our spam policies are designed to protect users and ensure high-quality search results.

To appear in Google Search, whether it's web pages, images, videos, news, or other content found across the web, content must follow both Google’s general Search policies and the spam-specific policies outlined here. These rules apply to all web search results, including those from Google’s own services.

That was a word salad spit out of AI.

 

[LeadBase]

Google just dropped a major update to its spam policies—and if you’re in SEO, affiliate marketing, or content, this affects YOU.

The Short Version:​

- Stricter on "Scaled Content Abuse" – Low-quality AI spam, gibberish rewrites, and mass-produced junk = penalized.
- Expanded "Site Reputation Abuse" – Hosting shady third-party content (think thin affiliate pages) could tank your whole domain.
- "Expired Domain Abuse" Crackdown – Buying old domains to slap on spam? RIP that loophole.

The Bottom Line:​

If your strategy leans on tricks over value, it’s time to pivot. Quality wins.

 

[T J Tutor]

it’s time to pivot. Quality wins.

This has been in process in a big way over the past six years and has been segmented in to smaller chunks to allow for adaptations by the commercial side practices, which of course includes affiliate marketing.

I, and my team, have been deep in to content marketing for many years and we are Google Developers. We get the notices of impending updates and know about most of them prior to their implementation. These efforts by the SE's has always been about moving into a more secure and a more valuable content era and at the same time eliminating the scoundrels of the internet that abuse them as a resource.

I'm all in with their updates now, although they did give me lot of "agita" in the beginning and sometimes a little here and there now. However, my business has actually improved as a result due to the elimination of an abundance of garbage sites that would always spue out crap content just to load keywords and loads of purchased back links. With them gone, we have seen an exponential growth pattern year after year.

It's time for those that want to fight it to surrender and start playing the smarter long game when you are in the content marketing game.

Content is KING and Traffic is QUEEN! It has always been that way and it will always remain! So get in the game to win!