Google Splits Site Reputation Enforcement at the EEA Border

Google changed how it enforces its site reputation policy on Friday, August 28, 2026, and the change took effect on August 30. Manual actions under the policy now behave differently depending on where the searcher is: outside the European Economic Area they affect search results as before, inside the EEA they do not.

What changed

The site reputation policy, introduced in 2024, targets the practice of publishing third-party content on a trusted site purely to borrow that site’s reputation and rank higher. It is the policy behind what the industry calls parasite SEO: the coupon section rented out on a newspaper domain, the casino reviews hosted under a university subdomain.

The enforcement mechanism has not changed, but the effect has split in two. From Google’s announcement:

• Outside the EEA: a manual action “will directly affect search results for the portion of the site affected. As before, the rest of the site won’t be affected.”
• Inside the EEA: “the impact of the manual action won’t apply. The affected section of the site may be separated in our systems so that, over time, it ranks independently from the rest of the site.”

Google says the adjustment follows discussion with the European Commission, and frames it as a way to keep fighting manipulation while working within the Digital Markets Act. The post also repeats Google’s existing concern that “an overbroad application of the DMA could prevent us from addressing real threats to the integrity of our search results.”

What stays the same

Site owners are still notified in Search Console when a manual action is applied, and they can still submit a reconsideration request. Google adds that eligible sites can bring a dispute to mediation following a reconsideration request. Because pages are viewed globally, Google notes a page can carry a manual action that only changes results for searchers outside the EEA.

What it means for you

If you rent out a section of your domain, or you are the partner publishing into someone else’s, the risk calculation is now regional rather than binary. Outside the EEA nothing has improved. Inside the EEA, the downside shifts from a direct suppression to a slower loss of borrowed authority, which is the same destination by a longer road.

For everyone else, the useful read is the direction of travel: Google keeps tightening on content that ranks because of whose domain it sits on rather than what it is. The durable alternative is unglamorous and still works, which is earning the ranking on the page itself. Start with on-page SEO basics and make sure the pages you own are actually the best answer.

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