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Forbes has announced that it will no longer be hiring freelancers to produce content for certain sections of its site, including the popular product review platform Forbes Vetted. The decision comes in response to a recent update from Google regarding its “site reputation abuse” policy.
According to an editor at the publication, the change is due to Google’s strict policies on what constitutes acceptable SEO practices. Specifically, the search engine giant has been cracking down on sites that publish large amounts of off-brand or irrelevant content in order to take advantage of their ranking power and reputation.
While it is unclear which specific sections of Forbes will be affected by this decision, one writer who had previously contributed to the platform described receiving word of a pause in freelance work. The individual, who wished to remain anonymous, noted that they would typically test products, go through multiple rounds of edits, and conduct interviews with sources before publishing their work.
Despite the rigorous editorial process, the writer was informed that some of their stories may need to be completely re-reported and re-published by an in-house staff member. The decision to no longer use freelancers for certain sections of the site comes as a surprise to many in the industry, given the publication’s long history of relying on outside contributors.
It is worth noting that Google’s spam policies do not prohibit freelance writers entirely. In fact, the search engine giant explicitly states that the existence of freelancer content itself does not violate its site reputation abuse policy – only if such content is designed to take advantage of a site’s ranking signals.
Forbes did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this matter.
Source: www.theverge.com
