Google's Preferred Sources tool, designed to empower users to prioritize their favorite high-quality news websites within the "Top News" feature, is reportedly being inundated with spam. Instead of showcasing legitimate, reputable sources, the tool is surfacing copycat sites, random low-quality domains, and parked pages, raising concerns among SEO professionals and users alike.

Many of these questionable sites exhibit extremely low quality, with some having only their homepages indexed by Google. This raises a critical question: how are these illegitimate domains making their way into a feature intended to highlight trusted news sources?

Understanding Google Preferred Sources

The Preferred Sources feature offers users a degree of control over the news outlets that appear more frequently in their personalized Google Top Stories feed. Rather than relying solely on Google's algorithmic ranking system, users can actively select and promote their preferred news sources. This personalization aims to enhance user experience by tailoring content visibility, though it doesn't block other sites from appearing entirely.

The Influx of Spam and Copycat Domains

Observations suggest that malicious actors are registering domain names strikingly similar to those of established, well-known websites. A common tactic involves domain squatting, where spammers register an exact-match domain name but with a different Top-Level Domain (TLD). For instance, if a popular site uses a .com or .net TLD, squatters might register the same name with a .com.in or .net.in extension.

Several examples illustrate this problem:

  • A search for "Automattic" within the tool surfaces a random subdomain.
  • Queries for popular SEO tools reveal the correct domain alongside a parked domain using an Indian .com.in country code TLD (ccTLD).
  • A search for "HuffPost" brings up a copycat site on an Indian country code domain. This particular site features articles and links related to topics like payday loans, personal injury lawyers, and luxury watches—content far removed from HuffPost's usual editorial focus. Unsurprisingly, Google appears to index little more than the homepage for such sites.
  • Even Search Engine Journal's domain name has an Indian site squatting on a similar name within the Preferred Sources tool.

The prevalence of Indian domains in these examples is likely due to the Preferred Sources tool currently being available in the USA and India.

Uncertainty Surrounding Exploitation

It remains unclear precisely how these spam and copycat domains are being added to Google's Preferred Sources tool. Two primary theories exist:

  • Manual Submission: SEOs or spammers might be actively registering these deceptive domains and then submitting them directly to the Preferred Sources interface.
  • Automatic Discovery: Alternatively, Google's systems might be automatically picking up and listing these domains, regardless of their quality or legitimacy, if they meet some basic, perhaps flawed, criteria for inclusion.

Regardless of the mechanism, the current state of Google's Preferred Sources tool presents a significant challenge. It undermines the tool's intended purpose of promoting high-quality news and poses a potential risk to users who might inadvertently encounter misleading or low-value content when trying to personalize their news feeds.