What the parasite SEO label hides
Three policy definitions, one borrowed nickname, and one claim Google makes directly: certain third-party reputation
or authority
scores do not correspond to its own signals.
Host Notes · independent SEO research notebook · issue W02
The parasite SEO label hides the thing you can actually measure
A working notebook for researchers who would rather test a claim than repeat it. Define a question, name a host page, fix a window, choose a comparison, write down the confounders, and record where the evidence lives. No scores. No rankings predicted. No findings until something has been measured.
Protocol-first · no host scores · no fabricated benchmarks · primary sources cited at the foot of each page
What the label compresses into one word
The phrase bundles at least three separate behaviours. Google's March 2024 announcement names each one and defines it. If a study does not say which behaviour it observed, the label is doing the work that a measurement should do.
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expired domain abuse
Purchasing an expired domain and repurposing it primarily to manipulate Search rankings with content of little or no value to users. Google adds that using an old domain for a new, original site designed to serve people first is fine.
Google Search Central, spam-fighting announcement, 5 March 2024.
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scaled content abuse
Generating many pages primarily to manipulate Search rankings rather than help users, regardless of whether pages come from automation, humans or a combination. The purpose is central, not the use of automation alone.
Google Search Central; expands an earlier automatically-generated-content policy.
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site reputation abuse
Third-party pages published with little or no first-party oversight or involvement, where the purpose is to manipulate rankings by borrowing the host site's ranking signals. Google states not all third-party content is a violation.
Google Search Central; announced as taking effect from 5 May 2024.
The designer asks for a protocol, not a verdict
Seven fields. Each one exists because leaving it out makes a result impossible to interpret later. The designer runs entirely in the browser: it makes no network request, stores nothing and submits nothing. It builds a JSON record of what you typed and nothing else.
- Research question — one testable question, worded so it does not presume its answer.
- Host / page — the exact page under observation, including protocol.
- Observation window — whole days from a stated start date, with the end date logged separately.
- Comparison or control — the counterfactual, and why the contrast is fair.
- Intervention description — exactly what changed, when, and what did not.
- Confounders — plausible alternative explanations, named before measuring.
- Evidence URL — a public primary source or capture, not a memory.
Four notes, in reading order
Short, source-cited working notes. Each one ends where a measurement would have to begin.
Separate discovery, indexing and ranking
Bing states that robots.txt controls crawl access, not indexing, and that NOINDEX is the control for keeping a URL out of results. Different stages need different evidence.
Design a comparison you can interpret
A host page compared with nothing is an anecdote. Match the control, name the counterfactual, and decide in advance what pattern would count against your expectation.
Keep a reproducible evidence log
Bing notes a decline in clicks does not always indicate a loss of visibility. Record impressions, indexing status and eligibility alongside clicks, and date every entry.
Sources used on this site
Only primary policy and documentation pages are cited. None of them contains prevalence data, effect sizes or ranking weights, and none is presented here as if it did.
| Source | What it supports here | Stated limit |
|---|---|---|
| Google Search Central: spam policies | Definitions of expired domain abuse, scaled content abuse and site reputation abuse; illustrative factors. | Policy text, not a measurement study. No prevalence, effect sizes or typical outcomes. |
| Bing Webmaster Guidelines | Crawl, index and visibility guidance; robots.txt versus NOINDEX; no guarantees for rankings, grounding or citations. | General guidance. No ranking-weight data and no published numeric thresholds. |
What this notebook is not
It is not a ranking manipulation service and runs no campaigns. It does not score hosts, rank tactics, benchmark anything or predict outcomes, and it will not show a finding it has not measured.
It is an independent research notebook. Policy text is quoted as policy text, with the date of the source and its limits attached. Where a claim cannot be sourced to a primary document, it does not appear.
