Site reputation manual actions no longer apply in the EEA

Google is sending site owners Search Console messages saying that a manual action for site reputation abuse no longer affects the results shown to users in the European Economic Area (EEA). The change took effect on August 30, 2026, yet site owners are only hearing about it now, more than two months later. Users outside the EEA still see results demoted by these actions.

What Google changed and when

Google introduced the site reputation abuse policy in March 2024, together with that month’s core update. According to Search Engine Roundtable, it has enforced the policy in Europe since January 2025. The policy targets third-party content placed on a trusted domain mainly to borrow its reputation and rank higher. People call it parasite SEO, and the classic case is a coupon section or “partner” reviews run by an outside company on a publisher’s domain.

Google announced the change on the Search Central blog on August 28, 2026. It wrote that, following discussions with the European Commission, it is adjusting how it enforces the policy in the EEA and clarifying the criteria it considers when applying it. It added a caveat: in its view, an overbroad application of the DMA (the EU Digital Markets Act) could make it harder to deal with real threats to search quality.

On November 4, Search Engine Roundtable reported on emails Google sent to sites that had manual actions under this policy. The message opens with “New Site Reputation Policy Change” and says the previous manual action “will no longer impact search results shown to users within the EEA”. Glenn Gabe shared a screenshot on X and pointed out that sites without an active action got the email too, as long as they had one in the past. The same notice sits in Search Console, in the manual actions viewer under “View related messages”.

How a manual action works since August 30

The effect of an action now depends on where the user is searching from:

Where the user is	What happens
Outside the EEA	The action directly affects results for the affected part of the site. As before, the rest of the site is not touched.
Inside the EEA	The impact of the action does not apply. Google may instead separate the affected section in its systems so that, over time, it ranks independently from the rest of the site.

Google notes that many pages are viewed by people around the world. A manual action on a page therefore changes results only for users outside the EEA.

The procedure stays the same. Search Console still notifies you when an action is applied, you can still file a reconsideration request, and eligible sites can then take the case to mediation.

What this means for sites in the EEA

If your audience is in the EEA, a manual action under this policy no longer lowers the results those users see. Three practical consequences follow:

A traffic drop from EEA countries after August 30 has another cause. The manual action alone does not explain it, so look elsewhere, for example at an algorithm update.
Algorithms still assess your site. The announcement covers manual actions and says nothing about automated systems. That is my reading of the text, not a statement from Google, but nothing in it suggests third-party content is safe in the EEA.
Users outside the EEA still feel the action. If you sell or publish for people outside Europe as well, the action keeps lowering your results for them.

My take is that Google is refining enforcement here, not giving old tactics a green light. The policy stays in the spam policies, and Google says plainly: “We are committed to our site reputation policy”. This is also not the first search change Google has made in Europe because of the DMA. I covered another one in my piece on the Google Shopping comparison box.

What the announcement leaves open

Some questions remain unanswered:

Google does not say how fast sections separated in its systems will start ranking on their own. It only says “over time”.
It is not known how the change affected specific sites. I found no public data on ranking shifts after August 30, so I give no numbers.
Google does not say which criteria it clarified. The post mentions “clarifying the criteria” but does not list them.

Summary

This message is no reason to change your content strategy. What changed is how Google applies manual actions to users in the EEA, while publishing someone else’s content just to ride your domain’s reputation still breaks its rules. If you received the policy change email, open the manual actions report and related messages in Search Console, and compare traffic separately for EEA countries and for the rest of the world.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a site reputation abuse manual action lower my rankings in the EEA?

No. According to Google, since August 30, 2026 the impact of such an action does not apply to users in the European Economic Area.

Will I still get a notification in Search Console?

Yes. Google says it still notifies site owners in Search Console when a manual action is applied, and you can file a reconsideration request.

Does the manual action still work outside the EEA?

Yes. For users outside the EEA the action lowers results for the affected part of the site. As before, the rest of the site is not affected.

Can I now safely publish third-party content on my domain?

The announcement does not say so. It only covers the effect of manual actions in the EEA, Google says it is sticking with the policy, and it says nothing about automated systems.