Google has updated its guidance on protecting a site from user-generated spam. The main change is a recommendation to keep link-shared pages out of the index.
What changed
The document 'Prevent user-generated spam on your site and platform' now carries a clause: where users on a platform create pages and share them by link, those pages should be blocked from indexing. The logic is straightforward. Google does not want search filled with material nobody meant to put in front of a wide audience.
The scenarios are the ones where content lives behind a sharing link: shared documents, public boards, results pages, temporary landing pages, account pages with a unique URL. A user makes such a page and sends it to a colleague or a friend. For them it is a working tool, not a publication for search.
Why it is worth checking your site
If you run a UGC platform or a service with shared content, the search engine can index thousands of pages you do not control. Spam algorithms treat such pages as a potential source of junk.
The trouble is that users often share content that has not passed moderation, or was never meant for the public. Open indexing turns an internal tool into a public shopfront, and you carry the responsibility for what it displays.
The updated help document sets out the measures to apply to pages with link-based access: add noindex to meta tags or response headers; close sections in robots.txt if the content should not reach the index at all; set canonical links where a page has both a public version and a sharing version. The exact set depends on how your site is built. The principle is the same: a page created to be passed along by link does not have to be in search.
What to do with UGC sections
Check which page types you leave open to indexing. If some of them are created by users and live only by direct link, those are the first candidates for closing.
Look separately at pages where content appears before moderation. Indexing unvetted user material is a risk. Spam signals on those URLs hit the whole domain, not just the page.
Archive and temporary pages matter too. If a service generates a unique URL for every session or task, they pile up in the index and dilute the site. Closing them is cheaper than cleaning up the results later.
How it ties to spam protection
The user-generated spam document is not new, but its updates are worth tracking. Its recommendations describe how the search engine sees platforms where users create the content. A site that lands under a spam filter takes time to recover.
Blocking shared pages from indexing is no cure-all. It is a basic hygiene step that reduces the attack surface. User spam on open URLs stays your responsibility, even when you did not create the page.
The update affects anyone with public pages of user-created content. Check what you have open to indexing. If a page exists to be shared by link rather than found in search, close it. That is cheaper than dealing with the aftermath of a spam filter.
