What are the new spam policies announced by Google?

16 October 2026 · By John Carlsson

Google made three spam policy changes in 2026. In April it added back button hijacking under malicious practices. In May it clarified that its spam policies apply to generative AI responses in Search. In August it updated site reputation abuse enforcement in the European Economic Area, where affected pages may be treated separately from the main domain instead of receiving a manual action.

What changed in Google's spam policies in 2026?

Google's documentation updates log records three changes to its spam policies so far in 2026, plus changes to how spam reports are used. The spam policies page was last updated on 28 August 2026.

13 April 2026: a new back button hijacking section under malicious practices.
15 May 2026: a clarification that the spam policies apply to generative AI responses in Search.
28 August 2026: an update to the site reputation abuse policy, with adjusted enforcement in the European Economic Area.

In April, Google also updated its documentation to say that spam report submissions may now be used for manual action, and later clarified when that can happen.

What is back button hijacking?

Back button hijacking is now listed as a malicious practice. It is when a site interferes with browser navigation so that visitors cannot immediately return to the page they came from, for example by manipulating the browser history. It sits alongside malware and unwanted software in the malicious practices policy, which Google says covers practices that create a mismatch between user expectations and the actual outcome.

If your site uses scripts that manipulate the browser history or change how the back button behaves, review them against this policy.

Do spam policies apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode?

Yes. Google's definition of spam now includes attempting to manipulate generative AI responses in Google Search. Google's May 2026 documentation update clarified that its spam policies apply to generative AI responses across Google Search, not only to classic results.

How has site reputation abuse changed in the EEA?

Google's site reputation policy applies where third-party content is published on a host site mainly because of the host's established ranking signals. In August 2026 Google adjusted how this is enforced in the European Economic Area:

Outside the EEA, relevant pages may receive a manual action in results shown to users outside the EEA.
Within the EEA, relevant pages may be treated as separate from the main domain and will not be subject to a manual action. They then rank on their own merits.

Either way, third-party content that relies on the host's reputation rather than its own value is still outside Google's policy.

Which other spam policies should you know?

The full list has not shrunk. Google's current policies cover cloaking, doorway abuse, expired domain abuse, hacked content, hidden text and link abuse, keyword stuffing, link spam, machine-generated traffic, malicious practices, misleading functionality, scaled content abuse, scraping, site reputation, sneaky redirects, thin affiliation and user-generated spam.

Two are worth a closer look if you publish at volume. Scaled content abuse is when many pages are generated mainly to manipulate search rankings and not to help users, no matter how they are created. Expired domain abuse is when an expired domain is bought and repurposed mainly to manipulate search rankings with content that provides little to no value to users.

Google also lists other practices that can lead to demotion or removal, including legal removals, personal information removals, policy circumvention and scam and fraud.

If you want to check a site against these policies, the AI Web Page SEO spam audit reviews pages for common spam policy issues.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Can a spam report from a competitor lead to a manual action?

Google updated its documentation in April 2026 to say that it may use spam report submissions to take manual action against violations, and later clarified when and why that may happen. Its spam policies say manual actions come from human review, and Google says that if it issues a manual action, it must send the submission text to the site owner.

Is AI-generated content against Google's spam policies?

Not by itself. The relevant policy is scaled content abuse, which covers generating many pages mainly to manipulate rankings rather than help users, no matter how they are created. Google says that using generative AI tools to generate many pages without adding value for users may violate that policy. Attempting to manipulate generative AI responses in Google Search is, however, now included in Google's definition of spam.