Google Emails Sites: Old Site Reputation Abuse Penalties No Longer Count in the EEA

What the Site Reputation Abuse Emails Say

The site reputation abuse emails tell site owners that an older manual action "will no longer impact search results shown to users within the EEA," according to a copy Glenn Gabe posted and Search Engine Roundtable reported on November 4. The email opens by saying Google "has recently made some changes to its site reputation policy within the EEA." Gabe said some sites with only a past action, and none current, got it too. Google has not confirmed that.

What Changed in August

What changed in August is the policy itself. In a Search Central post on August 28, 2026, Google said it was making the change "following discussion with the European Commission", and that it worries "an overbroad application of the DMA could prevent us from addressing real threats" to search quality. The DMA is the EU's Digital Markets Act.

Google's spam policies page now says that for searchers in the EEA, the pages involved "may be categorized as separate from the main domain but won't be subject to the impact of manual action." The aim, in Google's words, is to let "the different parts of the site to rank independently of each other, on their own merits."

Outside the EEA, Nothing Changed

Outside the EEA, nothing changed. A site reputation manual action still hits the section of a site it names for searchers everywhere else, including the US and the UK, which is not in the EEA. Sites still get the notice in Search Console and can still file a reconsideration request.

What It Means for Parasite SEO

What it means for parasite SEO is narrower than the headlines. Third-party sections on big domains, the coupon folders and sponsored "best of" pages the policy was written for, can rank in European results again on their own strength. They do not borrow the host domain's standing in Europe either: Google treats them as separate from the main domain. So a section that ranked only because of the domain it sat on gains little. A section with real authority and real relevance of its own can rank again.

For publishers in Europe who sold those sections, the email is a reason to read the August post closely before reopening them. For everyone else, the rules from 2024 still apply. Who covers this beat every week is on the SEO news channels and podcasts shelf.