Forbes has reportedly fired some of its freelancers for some stories over its ongoing issue with Google's site reputation abuse policy, aka parasite SEO. The Verge wrote, "Forbes will stop using freelancers for some types of stories indefinitely — and has blamed the change on a recent update to Google Search policies."
The Verge wrote:
In recent days, Forbes has said it will stop hiring freelancers to produce content for its product review section Forbes Vetted, according to a journalist who has written for the site. In a note shared with The Verge, an editor at Forbes cited Google’s “site reputation abuse” policy for the change.
Forbes did not confirm this with The Verge but a Google spokesperson did tell The Verge:
Google’s spam policies state that the existence of freelancer content in and of itself is not a running afoul of the site reputation abuse policy — it’s only a violation if that content is also designed to take advantage of the site’s ranking signals. Google spokesperson Davis Thompson directed The Verge to an FAQ section describing the freelancer policy.
All of you who read here know the history here very well. Google announced the site reputation abuse policy back in March 2024, then began enforcing it in May through manual actions, it is not algorithmic. Last month Google expanded the policy to include third-party content that has first-party involvement or content oversight, which is likely why Forbes made this move. Google also posted a more detailed FAQ on the SRA around this topic.
In April, we wrote that Forbes blocked a directory maybe related to this policy update. It seemed to enforce that more in May. Then there were rumors that Forbes got hit by a penalty anyway in September. Then when Google expanded the policy last month, maybe Google hit Forbes again?
Here is some of the reaction on this news on social:
The problem is that isn't what publishers are seeing. Many publishers. Are cutting ties with freelancers because that seems to be working in getting these manual actions removed.
— Chris Rydburg (@Rydch41) December 17, 2024
I think it's the right decision. Since there are always spam sites in the search results, people are defrauded by accessing fraudulent sites. I think Google needs to solve this problem quickly. Tumblr sites are available in almost all searches.
— erdim (@erdimozturk33) December 17, 2024
sick and tired of reading reviews about power tools from dorks in suits who write for Forbes.
— Wael Esmair (@WaelEliasEsmair) December 17, 2024
This reminds me of that time when Forbes and other big publishers nofollowed all outgoing links (in 2017).
— Juan González Villa (@seostrategaEN) December 17, 2024
It looks like a radical move out of fear of losing rankings, when Google's policy on the issue actually has more nuance than that.
Forum discussion at X.
