Prohibited Practices and Spam Policies
In Google Search, spam refers to techniques used to deceive users or manipulate search systems in order to obtain higher rankings. Google maintains spam policies to protect users and improve the quality of search results. Sites that violate those policies may rank lower or may not appear in results at all.
Cloaking
Cloaking is the practice of presenting different content to users and search engines with the intention of manipulating rankings and misleading people. Examples include showing search engines a page about travel destinations while showing users a page selling discounted medicine, or inserting text and keywords only when the requesting user agent is a search engine. When technologies such as JavaScript or images are difficult for crawlers to access, the correct approach is to improve accessibility rather than use cloaking.
Doorway abuse
Doorway abuse occurs when sites or pages are created to rank for specific, similar queries and funnel users through intermediate pages that are less useful than the final destination. Examples include multiple sites with small URL and homepage variations, numerous pages or domains targeting cities or regions only to redirect users elsewhere, or large sets of substantially similar pages positioned closer to search results than a clear and navigable site hierarchy.
Expired domain abuse
Expired domain abuse occurs when an expired domain is purchased and repurposed primarily to manipulate search rankings by hosting content that provides little or no value to users. Examples can include affiliate material on a former government website, commercial medical products on a domain once used by a nonprofit health organization, or gambling content on the former website of a school.
Hacked content
Hacked content is material placed on a site without permission because of security vulnerabilities. It can create poor-quality search results and may expose visitors to malicious content. Examples include code injection, page injection, content injection and malicious redirects.
Hidden text and link abuse
Hidden text and link abuse means placing content on a page primarily to manipulate search engines while keeping it invisible to human visitors. Examples include white text on a white background, text hidden behind an image, CSS that positions content off-screen, zero font size or opacity, or links attached only to a tiny character. Legitimate interface patterns that show and hide content to improve usability — such as accordions, slideshows, tooltips or screen-reader-only text — are not inherently violations.
Keyword stuffing
Keyword stuffing is the practice of filling a web page with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate Google Search rankings. These terms often appear in unnatural lists or groups and outside meaningful context. Other problematic practices include low-value automated content, artificial link schemes and duplicated or copied material that adds no original value.
Automatically generated content
Automatically generated content can violate spam policies when it is produced primarily to manipulate rankings and provides little value. The issue is not automation itself, but scale, intent and quality. Content should be useful, reviewed where appropriate and created for people rather than produced merely to occupy search results.
Artificial link schemes
Link schemes aim to manipulate rankings through unnatural links. They can include buying or selling links for ranking purposes, excessive link exchanges, partner pages created only for links, automated link-building services and other manipulative patterns. Healthy links should arise primarily from relevance, relationships and the value of the content or resource being referenced.