Forbes, TIME lose $7.5M/week as Google ends reputation arbitrage
Google has implemented a significant policy update targeting what the SEO industry knows as "parasite SEO" - now officially termed "site reputation abuse." The November 19, 2024 update specifically addresses major publishers' practice of leveraging their domain authority to rank affiliate and commercial content unrelated to their core focus.
The practice was straightforward: established publishers like Forbes, TIME, and Sports Illustrated would host content entirely unrelated to their primary editorial mission. Product reviews, affiliate content, and commercial recommendations would appear on subdomains or in separate sections, ranking well in search results primarily due to the domain's established credibility with Google.
This developed as a response to declining traditional ad revenue in digital publishing. Publishers discovered they could effectively monetize their search reputation by:
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