Forbes cuts ties with freelance journalists over 'Google spam policies'

The well-known American economic magazine Forbes has indefinitely suspended the use of outside writers in its product review category 'Forbes Vetted,' according to an interview with The Verge, an IT news site. The reason behind this is Google's tightening of regulations against the misuse of site reputation, or so-called '

Major news outlets, including The Verge and Forbes, hire freelance writers to write articles for them, but Forbes is known for having a particularly wide range of outside contributors.

While many of these writers are legitimate journalists who provide fair and thorough reporting, some contributors are using their reputations to spread questionable content, which may have made Google distrustful.

One issue that Google appears to be particularly concerned about is the problem of 'parasite SEO,' in which malicious affiliate articles, including ads for marijuana gummies, were distributed.

The problem is explained in more detail below.

There is a company that is taking advantage of Forbes' high search rankings to create affiliate articles, earning 500 billion yen a year and even considering acquiring Forbes - GIGAZINE

In response to this, Google introduced the ' Site Reputation Abuse Policy ' in May 2024 and updated the policy in November to strengthen its measures.

In a memo shared with The Verge, editors at Forbes revealed that this policy change was the reason they had stopped using freelancers for their product review section, 'Forbes Vetted.'

One writer who was fired by Forbes said that Forbes Vetted had a rigorous editorial process, but that Forbes had told him that his previous articles might be completely rewritten by in-house staff.

'Forbes Vetted obviously has a lot of resources invested in it,' a freelance writer told The Verge. 'One big product review I did was for $3,000 a piece. That's too much to say, 'Oh, we've got to do it all again with our own in-house staff.''

Google says that if the content is designed to use ranking signals , it violates its policies, but the content itself is not a problem. However, Forbes decided not to publish such articles on Forbes Vetted due to the risk of violating Google's policies.

It is unclear whether any other content besides Forbes Vetted will be affected by this decision. The Verge has reached out to Forbes for comment multiple times but has not received a response.