Google’s Siege on Spam Has Alarming Implications for News Sites Publishing Coupons

Google has made a significant announcement about its treatment of news publications listing coupon codes in the SERPs. A new core update seems to include the publisher type in its list of ‘spam’, which means a whole swathe of webpages could be obliterated from search results in just a month’s time.

But is there more than meets the eye here? 

Let’s explore just exactly what this update is all about and what the likely impact upon affiliates will be. 

March 2024 Spam Update

Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of publishers like a Google update. If affiliate marketing was a quaint medieval village, Google updates would be a troupe of Vikings storming in, setting fire to houses, slaughtering livestock, and so on.

This week, on Tuesday March 5th, Google announced that it was launching a new core update – one that will be targeting content across the SERPs, boosting ‘helpful content’ and downgrading ‘spam’.

So, what does it consider spam? Google, helpfully, has put together a list. Here, we can see the usual suspects. Link cloaking, keyword stuffing, machine-generated traffic, malware – you know the drill.

But there is one curious addition to the list: news sites ‘hosting coupons provided by a third party’.