Google spam policies
Google's spam policies are the list of practices Google Search treats as spam, the tactics that can push a page or a whole site down in results or out of them. The page names sixteen policies, from cloaking to user-generated spam, and Google catches sites that break them with automated systems and, when needed, human reviewers.
Source: Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search (updated August 28, 2026), checked October 29, 2026
What Google spam policies means for your business
Six of them have their own entry here: cloaking, doorway pages, link spam, scaled content abuse, keyword stuffing and site reputation abuse.
Expired domain abuse is buying a domain someone let lapse and filling it with low-value pages to borrow the rankings it used to have. Google's examples include affiliate pages on a site a government agency once used, and casino pages on an old elementary school's domain.
Two policies can catch an owner who did nothing on purpose. Hacked content is anything added to your site without permission, and you may not see it when you visit your own pages. User-generated spam is junk posted through your comment boxes, forums or profile pages, and Google says owners often don't know it's there. Google's definition of spam also covers trying to sway the AI answers in Google Search.
We'd read the list against your site one page at a time, starting with town pages that only swap the place name, links a vendor bought for you, and any section someone else runs under your name. If your traffic fell and you're worried a past vendor broke one of these rules, a check of your site against Google's spam policies is where we'd start.
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, Google's AI Overview listed twelve policies, citing LinkedIn posts, SEO agency blogs, YouTube and one Google blog post, plus a page about Gmail's spam filter. ChatGPT gave a table of eighteen practices and cited Google's spam policies page.
Our run through ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview, October 29, 2026. A sample, not what every buyer sees.
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