Shady tricks and why to avoid them
What does this page cover?
Many SEO tricks deliver a short lift and then turn into a liability once Google's systems or reviewers spot them. Sites that break Google's spam policies can rank lower or disappear from results.
Each case below names the trick as Google's spam policies name it, shows what counts and what stays allowed, and leads to a prompt that cleans up what is left of it.
Which shady tricks does Google name in its spam policies?
- Buying reviews Under what circumstances do bought or self-written reviews damage a brand's reputation?
- Cloaking Why does cloaking show search engines one page and visitors another, and how to clean it up?
- Doorway abuse Why do doorway pages for every city or keyword turn into a liability in Google?
- Expired domain abuse Under what circumstances does repurposing an expired domain for rankings count as spam at Google?
- Fake author box Under what circumstances does a fake author box with invented credentials hurt a site?
- Hacked content How does hacked content get onto a website, and how to clean it up for Google?
- Hidden text and link abuse Why does hidden text or a hidden link put a website at risk in Google Search?
- Keyword stuffing Why does keyword stuffing backfire, and how to clean stuffed pages up?
- Legal removals Why can many valid copyright removal requests pull down other pages of a site in Google?
- Link spam Under what circumstances do paid links, guest posts and digital PR count as link spam at Google?
- Machine-generated traffic Why do automated queries to Google for rank checking break Google's spam policies?
- Malicious practices Why do malware, unwanted software and back button hijacking count as malicious practices?
- Misleading functionality Why do fake tools and services that only lead to ads count as spam at Google?
- Native ads that look like content Why do ads styled as article links or real answers count as deception in quality rating?
- Personal information removals Why does Google demote sites with exploitative practices for removing personal information?
- Policy circumvention Why does moving spam to new subdomains or sites lead to wider restrictions at Google?
- Private blog network (PBN) How does a private blog network fall under Google's link spam policy?
- Rank for competitor brand Under what circumstances does a page targeting another brand's name or typos rank in Google?
- Scaled content abuse Under what circumstances does AI-generated or programmatic content count as scaled content abuse?
- Scam and fraud How does Google treat impersonation, fake support numbers and false business information?
- Schema that doesn't match the page Why does structured data that contradicts the visible page put a website at risk in Google?
- Scraping Why does republishing scraped content from other sites count as spam at Google?
- Site reputation policy Under what circumstances does third-party content on a strong domain break Google's rules?
- Sneaky redirects Why do sneaky redirects that send visitors elsewhere lead to trouble in Google?
- Thin affiliation Under what circumstances do affiliate pages count as thin affiliation at Google?
- User-generated spam How does user-generated spam in comments and forums end up on a site, and how to clean it up?