Google Changes Site Reputation Abuse Rules

Google has changed its approach to enforcing the Site Reputation Abuse policy in the European Economic Area (EEA). Starting August 30, 2026, manual actions imposed under this policy no longer affect search results for users in the EEA.

Site Reputation Abuse is when third-party content is published on an authoritative website. The main goal is to take advantage of the website’s strong reputation in Google. This helps the content rank higher in search results more easily.

For example, a large well-known media outlet has a strong domain. A third-party company publishes a “Best Loans 2026” section on the website. While actually creating and controlling the content itself, and the media outlet only provides its domain. Such a section may rank highly because of the authority of the entire website. It may not rank highly because of its own value. Google’s policy is aimed specifically at such practices.

Reviews, rankings, comparisons, affiliate links, and content from third-party authors are allowed. The problem arises when the main purpose of the publication is to use the ranking signals of a strong domain to promote third-party content.

Websites that lost visibility because they hosted third-party commercial content will no longer receive the same manual ranking demotion in EEA search results.

What Google Changed

Google announced the update on August 28, 2026, following discussions with the European Commission. The new rules took effect on August 30, 2026, and apply to searches made by users located in the European Economic Area.

The situation now looks like this: in the EEA, manual actions for Site Reputation Abuse no longer affect the ranking of the relevant content. Outside the EEA, the policy continues to work as before, and manual actions may affect page visibility. Importantly, Google focuses on the location of the user performing the search, not on the country where the website is registered.

Therefore, the same page can theoretically have different visibility in Google depending on the region. This means that if an affiliate works with several countries at the same time, evaluating results based only on the website’s overall organic traffic becomes even less representative.

Affiliate Links Do Not Automatically Violate the Rules

Google does not consider the use of affiliate links itself to be evidence of Site Reputation Abuse.

The following are also not automatically considered violations:

• content from third-party authors;
• working with freelancers;
• editorial partnerships;
• syndicated content;
• commercial content with affiliate links.

Google may consider the quality of the content, how it is presented, editorial control, responsibility for the content, and whether copies of it appear on other websites. Therefore, affiliate teams should evaluate potential websites for content placement not only based on SEO metrics and the amount of organic traffic. It is worth looking deeper at who creates the content, who edits it, whether it matches the interests of the website’s audience, and whether the affiliate section is an organic part of the website.

Why the European Commission Got Involved

The changes took place against the background of the European Commission’s investigation into Google’s policy. In November 2025, the European Commission began investigating whether Google’s actions complied with the requirements of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) regarding fair and non-discriminatory access for publishers to its search engine.

One of the issues was the demotion in search results of websites that publish commercial content from partners. The regulator pointed out that this practice could potentially limit the ability of media outlets and other publishers to monetize their websites, experiment with new business models, and cooperate with third-party companies. Following discussions with the European Commission, Google announced changes to how the Site Reputation Abuse policy is applied in the EEA.

Will Lost Traffic Return?

Removing the impact of manual actions in the EEA does not mean that pages will automatically return to their previous positions. Google may start evaluating certain sections of a website separately from the main domain. In practice, a commercial or affiliate section may gradually gain its own ranking signals instead of relying entirely on the authority of the main website. This process does not happen instantly. Therefore, after August 30, you should not expect pages that previously lost their positions to immediately recover all of their organic traffic.

What Affiliates Should Do

After the policy update, it is worth paying closer attention to SEO and other metrics by regions. Especially, of course, if you are driving traffic to Europe.

You should start with:

• separate organic traffic from the EEA and other regions;
• check Manual Actions in Google Search Console;
• analyze pages and sections with commercial content separately;
• track ranking changes after August 30;
• compare organic traffic with paid traffic;
• analyze conversions, approve rate, and actual revenue;
• check how well affiliate content is integrated into the website’s overall editorial structure.

It is especially important not to draw conclusions based only on the domain’s overall traffic. If a website operates across the EEA, the USA, the UK, and other regions at the same time, the dynamics may differ significantly.

Don’t Confuse the Changes with the August Spam Update

There is another factor that may make the analysis more difficult. The Google August 2026 Spam Update ended on August 21, and the changes to Site Reputation Abuse in the EEA took effect on August 30. Because these dates are so close, fluctuations in organic traffic may overlap. If a page lost or, on the contrary, gained positions at the end of August, you should not automatically link this only to the Site Reputation Abuse changes. It is better to analyze the dynamics by region, specific pages, and search queries.

What the New Site Reputation Abuse Rules Mean for Affiliate Marketing

For the affiliate market, Google’s changes in the EEA can be considered a positive signal, but they do not completely remove the risks for affiliate content. Google does not prohibit the affiliate model and does not consider affiliate links a violation by themselves. At the same time, the search engine continues to fight content that is created mainly to take advantage of the authority of another domain.

Therefore, the quality of the content itself and the way it is integrated into the website become even more important for affiliates. Websites should be evaluated not only by the amount of traffic or domain authority. But also by audience quality, region, conversions, and the stability of results.

After August 30, it is worth monitoring actual performance. The rule change creates new conditions for affiliate publishers in the EEA. But only the data will show how strongly these changes will affect organic traffic.

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