Google recently criticized the SEO industry for manipulating search rankings and undermining the integrity of Google search results. Consumers frequently encounter subpar or spammy websites when searching for product recommendations, reviews, deals, and discounts, even though these sites are highly ranked and fail to provide the promised expert reviews or useful promotions. The company announced that a new search update is on the way.
Google recently unveiled a search quality update aimed at enhancing website search quality rankings and updating Google Search’s spam policies. Regarding the latter, Google’s new policies will focus on eliminating low-quality content from search results, such as “expired websites repurposed as spam repositories by new owners” and obituary spam.
In general, the update aims to enhance Google’s ranking systems to lower the ranking of pages that prioritize search engines over user experience, as per the company’s announcement. Therefore, websites with subpar user experiences or those tailored to a particular search query will be affected. According to Google’s calculations, this update and previous initiatives are expected to decrease low-quality and unoriginal content by 40%. 
Google’s blog post does not explicitly mention “artificial intelligence” or “AI,” but its detailed post on Search Central does. The company describes the influence of this new technology on the web, highlighting how scaled content creation methods frequently utilize “automation.” Due to the complexity of these technologies, it can be challenging to determine whether the content was created by humans, involved automation, or was a mix of both.
On the contrary, Google will prioritize addressing the harmful practice of generating large amounts of content to manipulate search rankings, regardless of the website’s origin. This may affect web pages that claim to provide answers to common search queries yet fail to deliver significant value to users.
According to spokesperson Jennifer Kutz, Google is updating its ranking algorithm to target low-quality AI-generated content that aims to drive clicks without offering significant original value. “The updates will also target other forms of content—content that is mainly human-created but lacks value for users. “Our main objective is to minimize the number of pages that are deemed unsatisfactory and lack unique content,” she stated. The content abuse policy will prioritize content created by humans, generative AI, or other automated means, as highlighted by Google.
Google is updating its algorithms to combat “site reputation abuse,” where a website with quality content also includes low-quality content from third parties to take advantage of its reputation. One could consider how an educational website might incorporate payday loan reviews to improve its ranking, potentially influencing other product review sites that may not conduct genuine hands-on testing.
404 Media recently highlighted an issue regarding Google’s search quality, citing recent German research that analyzed thousands of search terms over the course of the year and found it to be objectively declining. According to search marketers, scammers are currently prevailing in this situation. The rise in SEO spam, on the other hand, has a negative impact on specialized websites like HouseFresh’s air purifier review site by overshadowing their manual, professional product evaluations. Last month, HouseFresh expressed concerns about Google favoring product recommendations from major media publishers over its own reviews, which it believed were more genuine editorial reviews.
The update will address expired domain abuse, where new content is made to look like it’s from an older site, and when domains are resold and repurposed to promote low-quality content and spam.
If Google effectively resolves these issues with its search quality update, it could greatly influence consumers’ perceptions of the usefulness of Google Search, a topic that has raised concerns among many individuals due to advancements in AI. Publishers are experiencing a decrease in website clicks, while new startups such as Arc’s web browser and news readers are considering using AI to condense information, potentially impacting the website traffic crucial for publishers.
Google is announcing its policy two months before enforcement on May 5 to allow site owners to make adjustments.
