Google Reverses Search Ranking Penalties After EU Pressure

Google has modified its site reputation policy in response to pressure from the European Commission. The policy, introduced in 2024, aimed to prevent third-party content from being published on trusted websites to manipulate search rankings.

The European Commission opened an investigation into Google's policy in November 2025, citing concerns that it may breach the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by unfairly demoting news media and other publishers' content in search results.

Following discussions with the European Commission, Google has adjusted its enforcement of the policy. Manual actions will no longer affect a website's search rankings within the European Economic Area (EEA).

The change does not apply to users outside the EEA, who may still see impacted websites' search results affected by manual actions.