The rollout is having a notable impact in the news and publishing industry, as documented by Olga Zarr.
Major organizations, including CNN, USA Today, and LA Times, were among the first to receive manual penalties, primarily for hosting third-party coupons and promotional content.
Glenn Gabe shared early observations:
Here’s another example. The query “uber promos codes” yielded CNN as #2 yesterday and Fortune at #4. Both are now gone. I can’t even find them. Wow. pic.twitter.com/0Oc48ggYeh
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 6, 2024
The recovery process has shown clear patterns: sites that removed offending content or implemented noindex tags on affected sections have started seeing their manual actions lifted. However, ranking recovery takes time as Google’s crawlers need to process these changes.
BTW, here’s a site that never dropped (must have slipped through the cracks when manual actions were sent out). But, they noindexed the coupons directory recently anyway. The site actually surges when others drop out due to manual actions. But again, that content is noindexed… pic.twitter.com/6lz8umfeBl
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 11, 2024
Looking Ahead
While enforcement relies on manual actions, Google has indicated plans for algorithmic updates to automate the detection and demotion of site reputation abuse, though no specific timeline has been announced.
Site owners found in violation will receive notifications through Search Console and can submit reconsideration requests.
Featured Image: JarTee/Shutterstock