Google Says It Has Taken Steps To Deal With Parasite web optimization

On Friday, Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, said that the search company has taken steps to deal with the parasite SEO problem. He also added that the specific change with the upcoming helpful content update is still not live yet but Google did take other steps to deal with the issue.

Sullivan wrote on X, “we have taken steps to better deal with third party content of this nature, and we’ll absolutely be continuing to do more.” “We have a variety of systems to deal with things like this, and yes, we’ve taken steps,” he added.

About a month ago, Google told us to expect changes to third-party hosted content in the future but that the last helpful content update didn’t address that specifically, there was just a documentation change not an algorithmic change with that yet.

On Friday, Danny Sullivan added, “I think you’re talking about the broader idea of how this might apply to the helpful content system in particular. That particular step still isn’t yet live.”

He did say that the “the advice we’ve given in relation to it and third-party content is still generally good advice to keep in mine for those who wish to create (or be seen as creating) helpful, people-first content.” “It’s very likely we’ll migrate or add that advice to our page about that,” he added, so the question is when?

This specific conversation was around this content hosted on Harvard’s website:

Parasite sites & renting sub-domains are a huge problem. So unfair. They can publish duplicate content from the same data providers & then kw stuff the supplementary content & just get away with it due to their trust signals and DA from parent site 🙁

— Steve Barnes (@StevePBarnes) December 7, 2023

That particular situation seems, unfortunately, more likely a case that the site is unaware this content has been placed on it rather than a purposeful attempt to host the content. Hopefully, they’ll attend to this. That said, we have taken steps to better deal with third party…

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) December 8, 2023

We have a variety of systems to deal with things like this, and yes, we’ve taken steps. I think you’re talking about the broader idea of how this might apply to the helpful content system in particular. That particular step still isn’t yet live. But the advice we’ve given in…

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) December 8, 2023

To be fair to Google, Glenn Gabe shared some examples of Google addressing some of those issues (which we covered before):

Yep, some of those systems have dealt with things over the past few months. I documented that in several tweets. Eager to see the HCU piece go live, but again, some have already dropped heavily. https://t.co/J0R1DHcfJd

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 8, 2023

And more: https://t.co/vSTrp4jNBO

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 8, 2023

More to come – buckle up…

Here is more from this morning:

The HCU piece isn’t live yet, but I’ve documented some huge drops for parasite SEO sites since the updates began in late summer. Here are three fresh screenshots of directories containing sponsored content. Huge drops in visibility since then. But again, the HCU part isn’t live… https://t.co/tB4G8oDNiL pic.twitter.com/pIiYp6D4XD

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 11, 2023

Forum discussion at X.