Google releases new Search Spam Report Form

Spam is overbearing for Google, especially with AI such as ChatGPT increasing the volume and undetectability of the problem. With Google’s automatic systems consistently failing to prevent spam (only 20% of it was removed in 2022), it falls on business owners to manually remove the content that is costing them leads.

To assist in this manual process, Google released a new Search Spam Report Form. While reporting previously only covered reviews and fake businesses, this new form also accommodates reporting spam in the form of paid links, malicious behavior, low quality, and other search quality issues. Google also added the ability to submit complaints in bulk, a feature sorely needed to combat targeted spam campaigns.

While businesses shouldn’t have to do spam cleanup on Google’s behalf, many do not have a choice. Spammers can easily push legitimate businesses down in rankings until they are below the fold and effectively out of sight of customers. Many spammers then sell back their stolen leads, an extortion that businesses obviously do not want to pay. 

Monitoring a small or medium-sized business for competitor spam can be doable, but this process does not scale for enterprise-level businesses. Manual reporting, even with Google’s new bulk report feature, is not enough to solve the problem for many businesses. Dedicating resources to this process can also be problematic. Business managers, after all, need to focus on growing their businesses, not just making sure others don’t ruin their hard work.

DAC offers its own spam removal services, so if you are in the position where you can’t possibly monitor all your listings, get in touch.