{"id":15547,"date":"2021-06-01T15:48:28","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T15:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.improvemysearchranking.com\/?p=15547"},"modified":"2023-12-05T11:16:12","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T11:16:12","slug":"google-warns-of-manual-actions-penalty-for-ugc-spam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.improvemysearchranking.com\/google-warns-of-manual-actions-penalty-for-ugc-spam\/","title":{"rendered":"Google warns of manual actions penalty for UGC spam"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google recently published a blog post and reminded website owners that UGC or user-generated content is their responsibility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By extension, preventing UGC spam is also on website owners, and websites that tolerate UGC spam (or encourage that) may receive a manual action penalty. That manual action penalty may result in a loss of traffic and key search engine rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is in line with Google\u2019s Webmaster Guidelines.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Google:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the principles set out in Google\u2019s Webmaster Guidelines, this may result in Google taking manual actions against the affected pages.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What is user generated content spam?<\/b><\/h2>\n

User generated content or UGC is often used by spammers and black-hat SEOs to build backlinks and increase citations.<\/span><\/p>\n

They go to forums and comment sections on different websites on the internet and spam content with little value, only to get a citation or backlink. Some spammers even hide their links by making them black.<\/span><\/p>\n

Examples of UGC areas<\/b><\/h2>\n

Google highlighted the following areas where UGC spam is common:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Guestbooks<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Social media websites<\/span><\/li>\n
  • File uploaders<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Internal search services<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Internet forums<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Free hosting services<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Google also explained further and highlighted the type of spam webmasters need to keep an eye out for:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cSpammy content like this can be harmful to your site and users in several ways:<\/span><\/p>\n

    Low-quality content on some parts of a website can impact the whole site\u2019s ranking.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Spammy content can potentially lead users to unwanted or even harmful content, such as sites with malware or phishing, which may lower the reputation of your site.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Unintended traffic from unrelated content on your site can slow down your site and raise hosting costs.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Google might remove or demote pages that are overrun with third-party generated spam to protect the quality of our search results.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n

    As a website or forum owner, the prevention of UGC spam is on you.<\/span><\/p>\n

    You can minimize the chances of that happening by:<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    • Blocking the creation of automated accounts,<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Installing captchas and double opt-in and verification methods,<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Increasing the number of moderators,<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Having strict rules against spam and enforcing them,<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Blocking and deleting spam accounts,<\/span><\/li>\n
    • No-indexing UGC links.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Google recently published a blog post and reminded website owners that UGC or user-generated content is their responsibility.\u00a0 By extension, preventing UGC spam is also on website owners, and websites that tolerate UGC spam (or encourage that) may receive a manual action penalty. That manual action penalty may result in a loss of traffic and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oct_exclude_from_cache":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nGoogle Warns of Manual Penalty for UGC Spam | IMSR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Prevent UGC spam on your website. Google warns of penalties for tolerating user-generated content spam. Protect your rankings.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.improvemysearchranking.com\/google-warns-of-manual-actions-penalty-for-ugc-spam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Google Warns of Manual Penalty for UGC Spam | IMSR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Prevent UGC spam on your website. Google warns of penalties for tolerating user-generated content spam. 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