SEARCHENGINES
Google Pirate (DMCA) Penalty Gets Stronger & Catches Redirects

Google sent a document to the U.S. Copyright Office that explains how Google’s DMCA update (aka the Pirate update) has been strengthened by (1) catching redirect schemes and (2) a site hit by this demotion on average sees a 89% drop in Google search traffic.
I spotted this via Glenn Gabe on Twitter via TorrentFreak.com. The PDF document was published on February 8, 2022 and Google wrote in that document:
“Demotion of Websites That Receive A Large Volume of Notices. We have developed a “demotion signal” for Google Search that causes sites for which we have received a large number of valid removal notices to appear much lower in search results. We have also made it much harder for infringing sites to evade demotion by redirecting people to a new domain. Finally, we have added a “still-in-theaters/prerelease” flag for DMCA notices involving this category of content to enhance the Search demotion signal. When a site is demoted, the traffic Google Search sends it drops, on average, by 89% on average.”
Clearly Google is saying that the algorithm is a “demotion” signal that can reduce the traffic Google sends to that site on average 89% – that is a huge number. Plus, Google looks to see if sites use redirects from the infringing domain to a new domain to catch those players.
Google launched the Google DMCA update back in 2012, a decade ago, then in October 2014 it updated it and we have not heard much about it since. So now here is an update from Google on this DMCA update.
Here is Glenn’s summary of this:
More: Google also added a “still-in-theatres/prerelease” flag for DMCA notices to enhance the Search demotion signal. Also, when a URL is delisted following a DMCA notice, any Google ads running on that page are auto disabled. We also will not run ads that link to delisted pages: pic.twitter.com/HBmEXCE3lQ
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 21, 2022
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Ads Testing Replacing Ad Label With Sponsored Label

Google Ads is testing replacing the “ads” label with a “sponsored” label again. And just so you know, Google in 2010 replaced the “sponsored” label with an “ad” label until this day. Yea, sometimes we do see “sponsored” labels in Google Search but not for the normal search ads – those have been labeled “ads” for the UK and US regions for a long time now.
I personally cannot replicate this but Bastiir posted some screenshots of this on Twitter:
Test: Sponsored label in Google Search:
Normal: Ads label in Google Search:
Here is another full size screenshot you can click on to see the “sponsored” label:
Here are more tests:
Here’s an interesting test. Google is currently showing new ad label variations on mobile, now with the words ‘advertisement’ and ‘sponsored’. This is matched with another URL + favicon test from March – lots going on here. More info: https://t.co/j6IUtkSa1z pic.twitter.com/FLSnZcmzWc
— Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) May 17, 2022
I personally like the “sponsored” label, makes it feel more luxury. 🙂
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Update: Google has now confirmed this as a test and sent Search Engine Land this statement:
This is part of a series of experiments to help users more easily identify the brand or advertiser associated with the Search ads they may see for a given query. We are always testing news ways to improve the experience for users on the search results page, but we don’t have anything specific to announce right now.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
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