Google Says White Label Coupon Sites Would Be Penalized By Site Reputation Abuse

Google has updated its coupons FAQs in the original Google March core update blog post to clarify which sites would be hit by the site reputation abuse policy. Google wrote “white-label services that focus on redistributing coupons with the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings” would be in violation of this policy.

Google updated the content yesterday, June 5th, to read:

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.

If the publication is actively involved in the production of the coupon area, there’s no need to block this content from Google Search. 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.

Previously it read:

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.

Google said it “Expanded on the FAQ about coupon areas to explain more about what active involvement means.”

I spotted this via Orhan Kurulan on X:

Here is the changelog ???? pic.twitter.com/gWasjIeW5B

— Orhan KURULAN (@orhankurulan) June 5, 2024

As a reminder, Google’s site reputation abuse policy seemed to heavily target white labeled coupon directory sites. Those that posted these coupons on parts of their site from these white labeled services.

Update: Malcolm Coles also posted about this change this morning.

Forum discussion at X.