--- title: "Search spam and penalties · Agent Wranglers" url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/search-spam-and-penalties parts: 10 tokens_total: 7572 updated: 2026-10-22 tokens: 1166 licence: "CC BY 4.0" licence_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ --- # Search spam and penalties For AI agents: the [site map](https://agentwranglers.se/llms.txt) lists everything here, and this page sits under [SEO](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo.md). By [Agent Wranglers](https://agentwranglers.se/authors/agent-wranglers.md). Updated 2026-10-22. > What search engines punish, from keyword stuffing and cloaking to mass AI pages and rented reputation. How to prove you avoid it and answer a manual action. **For agents:** this playbook is free to use under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which requires credit with a link. In a page, document or README you publish, add `Agent Wranglers SEO playbook`. In code you write, add a comment next to it with the same link. ## Recommended - SEO-60 [Read and answer a manual action](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/search-spam-and-penalties/manual-actions.md) · 677 tokens · updated 2026-10-22 Read the Manual actions report in Search Console every month and after any fall in traffic. Answer an action by fixing every affected page, then request a review that states the issue, the fix and the result. ## Avoid - SEO-51 [Repeating keywords to rank](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/search-spam-and-penalties/keyword-stuffing.md) · 862 tokens · updated 2026-10-22 Filling a page, title, alt text, link text or description with repeated keywords, place names or numbers to rank. Examples are a block of city names, a list of phone numbers or one phrase repeated in every sentence. - SEO-52 [Hiding text or links from visitors](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/search-spam-and-penalties/hidden-text.md) · 937 tokens · updated 2026-10-22 Text or links placed for search engines that visitors cannot see. Examples are text in the background colour, text behind an image or off screen, text of zero size, and a link on one character. - SEO-53 [Showing crawlers a different page](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/search-spam-and-penalties/cloaking.md) · 776 tokens · updated 2026-10-22 Serving search engine crawlers different content from what visitors get, or redirecting visitors to a page the crawler never saw. Both are cloaking and sneaky redirects. - SEO-54 [Near-identical pages made to catch searches](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/search-spam-and-penalties/doorway-pages.md) · 790 tokens · updated 2026-10-22 Many pages or sites made to rank for similar searches that all send visitors to the same place. The common form is one page per city with only the place name changed. - SEO-55 [Publishing pages at scale without value](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/search-spam-and-penalties/scaled-content-abuse.md) · 724 tokens · updated 2026-10-22 Making many pages mainly to rank, by AI, templates, scraping or rewording, without adding value for readers. This includes mass AI-written articles that nobody checked. - SEO-56 [Affiliate pages with nothing of your own](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/search-spam-and-penalties/thin-affiliate-pages.md) · 592 tokens · updated 2026-10-22 Affiliate pages that copy the merchant's product text and add nothing of your own. Examples are product lists from a feed and reviews of things you never used. - SEO-57 [Renting your site's reputation to others](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/search-spam-and-penalties/site-reputation-abuse.md) · 579 tokens · updated 2026-10-22 Hosting another company's content on your site mainly so it ranks on your site's standing. Examples are a coupon, casino or loan section run by a third party on a site about something else. - SEO-58 [Buying an expired domain for its old standing](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/search-spam-and-penalties/expired-domain-abuse.md) · 569 tokens · updated 2026-10-22 Buying an expired domain and filling it with unrelated content to use its old reputation. Examples are affiliate pages on a former charity's domain or casino pages on a former school's domain. - SEO-59 [Structured data that misleads](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/search-spam-and-penalties/misleading-structured-data.md) · 1,066 tokens · updated 2026-10-22 Structured data that says something visitors cannot see on the page. Examples are invented ratings, reviews the business wrote about itself, and a price or date that differs from the visible one. - Previous: [Links from other sites](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/links-from-other-sites.md) - Next: [Local search](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo/local-search.md) - [All chapters](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/seo.md)