John Mueller of Google said on Twitter that when he is asked for input publicly around web spam issues, like on Twitter, he often would not report that directly to the Google webspam team. He said "in most cases I run across here, where people ask us for input, or where it looks like sites would do better if prompted, I don't forward things to the webspam team."
This was specifically in response to a question around the SEMRush guest blog post link thing. He added "maybe they'll notice it anyway, maybe others will flag it, but maybe the site will just improve and be awesomer."
I totally didn't expect John to report what SEMRush was doing to the spam team. But I suspect this was on Google's radar already.
Does it surprise you that John does not report these types of things to the webspam team?
In most cases I run across here, where people ask us for input, or where it looks like sites would do better if prompted, I don't forward things to the webspam team. Maybe they'll notice it anyway, maybe others will flag it, but maybe the site will just improve and be awesomer.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) June 4, 2020
We know Googlers do patrol social media for these types of efforts.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Update from John on this story:
It's more about hoping - and giving a chance - for sites to clean up the issues themselves. There's enough public pressure for sites to improve already, and my feeling is often they do improve. A lot of these sites/folks try to do their best, and are happy to learn over time.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) June 4, 2020
Also, note, I replaced the graphic on this story. Sorry if it was incentive, that was not what I was thinking.
