Forbes has reportedly fired some of its freelancers for some stories over its ongoing issue with Google's site reputation abuse policy, aka parasite S

Forbes Fires Freelancers Over Google's Site Reputation Abuse Policy

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2024-12-24 17:30:07

Forbes has reportedly fired some of its freelancers for some stories over its ongoing issue with Google's site reputation abuse policy, aka parasite SEO. The Verge wrote, "Forbes will stop using freelancers for some types of stories indefinitely — and has blamed the change on a recent update to Google Search policies."

In recent days, Forbes has said it will stop hiring freelancers to produce content for its product review section Forbes Vetted, according to a journalist who has written for the site. In a note shared with The Verge, an editor at Forbes cited Google’s “site reputation abuse” policy for the change.

Google’s spam policies state that the existence of freelancer content in and of itself is not a running afoul of the site reputation abuse policy — it’s only a violation if that content is also designed to take advantage of the site’s ranking signals. Google spokesperson Davis Thompson directed The Verge to an FAQ section describing the freelancer policy.

All of you who read here know the history here very well. Google announced the site reputation abuse policy back in March 2024, then began enforcing it in May through manual actions, it is not algorithmic. Last month Google expanded the policy to include third-party content that has first-party involvement or content oversight, which is likely why Forbes made this move. Google also posted a more detailed FAQ on the SRA around this topic.