Forbes will stop using freelancers for some types of stories indefinitely and blames the change on a recent update to Google Search policies, reports Mia Sato of The Verge.
Sato reports, “In recent days, Forbes has said it will stop hiring freelancers to produce content for its product review section Forbes Vetted, according to a journalist who has written for the site. In a note shared with The Verge, an editor at Forbes cited Google’s ‘site reputation abuse’ policy for the change.
“Site reputation abuse — also called parasite SEO — refers to a website publishing a deluge of off-brand or irrelevant content in order to take advantage of the main site’s ranking power and reputation in Google Search. Often, this piggybacking is concealed from users browsing the website. (For instance: those weird coupon code sections on newspaper sites that pop up via search engines but aren’t prominently displayed on the homepage.) Sometimes this spammy content is produced by third-party marketing firms that are contracted to produce a mountain of search-friendly content.
“Forbes did not respond to multiple requests for comment. It’s not clear what other sections of Forbes the pause extends to. Writer Cassandra Brooklyn described receiving similar news last week.”
Read more here.
Source: Forbes is cutting ties with some freelancers – Talking Biz News
