Google Confirms: Fake Traffic Won’t Hurt Search Rankings

In a recent Google SEO office hours session, a question arose about the impact of “bad actor” traffic on a website’s search rankings. Martin Splitt, a Google representative, clarified that sending fake or malicious traffic to a site would not negatively affect its reputation in Google’s eyes.

“Simply sending traffic from questionable sources to a site won’t tarnish it,” Splitt explained. He emphasized that the key factors affecting a website’s trustworthiness are its content quality and overall health.

“Spam content or malware are real threats,” Splitt said. “These issues can negatively impact a site’s search rankings. However, Google doesn’t hold websites responsible for where their traffic or links originate.”

The Google representative stressed that while site trustworthiness is not a binary concept, it’s primarily based on a website’s content and technical aspects, not on external factors like fake traffic.