Google issued a warning about sites that lease out its own subdomains and subfolders so that other companies can rank their content better on leased domains. Well, now it seems Google is taking action by penalizing those sections of sites that have these leased out sections.

Glenn Gabe posted examples of sites getting hit on his Twitter stream:

OK, quick update. EU *and* US sites are being impacted. Just noticed the coupons section of a weather site saw a big drop. Google is def. backing up their stance on domain leasing. https://t.co/C0SJDUVRQe pic.twitter.com/HdIUiXs8ll — Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 28, 2019

Is Google starting to roll out the improvements for detecting third-party content on leased subdomains and subfolders?



I received these screenshots a few hours ago.



However, as only one operator seems to be affected, my guess would "not yet" & that it's a more targeted action. pic.twitter.com/15lCKAg3ZX — LoisH 🤘 (@theloish) August 26, 2019

It appears that Google started to roll out improvements that detect unrelated third-party content placed in subfolders.



Subdomains seem so far unaffected.



Which led to the slightly perverse effect of operators using subdomains seeing an (temporary) increase in visitors. https://t.co/slyIxto9S6 — LoisH 🤘 (@theloish) August 27, 2019

Here are more examples:

So I guess the main sites are not getting hit but the leased out portions of those sites are being hit.

Forum discussion at Twitter.