Google manually removed nine French domains from its Discover content feed between November 3 and November 4, 2026, citing major spam issues related to templated content and unverified author profiles.
The action impacted approximately 2 percent of articles served by Discover in France, with affected publishers receiving a “Major site spam issues” notification in Search Console on November 5.
The removed domains shared a similar editorial approach, focusing on practical and timeless content, often featuring long, consistently formatted titles, according to digital marketing agency Abondance. Four of the domains also used author signatures not linked by Google to specific individuals.
Data from 1492.vision indicated a significant overrepresentation of themes such as ‘home and garden’, ‘humor and unusual’, and ‘food and cooking’ among the articles of the affected domains. Entities like ‘Garden’, ‘Gardening’, ‘Plant’, ‘Heating’, and ‘Retirement’ were also prominent.
The manual action appeared to be highly targeted within France, as neighboring sites covering similar topics and the broader French market remained stable. No comparable phenomenon was observed outside of France, Abondance reported.
Google’s tightened documentation on large-scale content production and verifiable author profiles, updated in early October, are considered plausible reasons for the manual intervention, according to Abondance.
While the Search Console message indicated that the manual action targeted search results, the removal from Discover was observed first, preceding the official notification.
The affected domains did not include major French publishers such as Ouest-France, 20 Minutes, or Marie France. However, some specialized publications like Mon jardin & ma maison and L’ami des jardins, which align with the identified content themes, were not among those removed.
The action highlights Google’s ongoing efforts to enforce its content quality guidelines, particularly concerning automatically generated or low-value content and the importance of transparent authorship.
Source: Abondance
