Malcolm Coles

Google has snuck in an update on 4th June to its March blog post on site reputation abuse moving from publishers having to oversee the sections to insisting they source voucher codes directly.

Under the heading “My site has a coupon area that we produce in part by working with a third party. Is this considered spam?” it now says:

“Many publications host coupons for their readers. Readers should clearly understand how the publication sources its coupons and how it works to ensure that the coupons provide value to readers.

“Active or close involvement is when the hosting site is providing unique value to its readers by directly sourcing coupons from merchants and other businesses that serve consumers, not from white-label services that focus on redistributing coupons with the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings.”

The wording used to say:

“Many publications host coupons for their readers. If the publication is actively involved in the production of the coupon area, there’s no need to block this content from Google Search. Readers should clearly understand how the publication sources its coupons and how it works to ensure that the coupons provide value to readers.”