Google Sending Confirmation Notices for Spam Reports

Google seems to have made a small change for those who submit spam reports via Google Search Console… a new confirmation email WNC-652000 for “Spam report successfully submitted.”

Here is the new notice they send out for a submitted spam report.

Spam report successfully submitted

Google has received a spam report for site http://www.example.com. We will investigate this spam report, prioritizing by search result impact, and take appropriate action if we uncover abuse. We appreciate your taking the time to help us improve our service for your fellow users around the world. By helping us eliminate spam, you’re saving millions of people time, effort and energy.

The addition of “prioritizing by search result impact” is interesting.  This makes sense because for super long tail results that might not have a lot of options for quality search results, sites that lean more towards the spammy side tend to surface more.  It also means that if you submit a spam report for something much more competitive, that the report might be looked at more quickly.

Sending an email confirmation is also a good move by Google, as sometimes people were unsure if their spam report actually went through or not.  And many will just continually submit the same spam report each day in hopes that repeated reports might make Google look at a specific result closer more quickly.

It will probably make people wonder if their spam reports are somehow tied to their Google Search Console accounts.  It does not show up in any reports though.  But perhaps it might make people think twice about submitting their competitor’s sites in hopes the spam team finds something amiss.

Google seems to have started sending out these emails about a month ago.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post

Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, ClickZ and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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