Have you ever filed a Google spam report on a site yet never seen any impact on their search rankings after that, and wondered why?  There are a few different reasons why Google may not act on a spam report.

Not Enough Information

If you are submitting a spam report, include as much information as possible.  Submitting a link with just a description of “spam” is not that helpful, especially if dealing with some more elaborate spam or a new type of spam that is showing up in the search results.

Instead, be as detailed as possible, including what the spam is, why you feel it is spam and what you see the impact of the spam is.

Low Priority Site or Page

Sometimes Google doesn’t take action because the reported page isn’t a high enough priority because it has such a low number of impressions.  So while you might be doing vanity searches for a super long tail keyword that brings up a page you see as spammy, there just might not be enough impressions to make it a high enough priority when there are other sites or pages with a much higher search impression who are spamming.

Just Not Spam

While you might be sure something a competitor is doing is spam, sometimes it is just really good SEO.  In fact, 20% of the spam reports just aren’t spam at all.  For example, a spam report could be submitted by someone just because they had a bad customer service experience with a site.  So even while you might think a site sucks, that doesn’t mean it is a spam issue.

So next time you file a spam report, make sure it is a real spam issue and be as detailed as possible to increase the likelihood it will be acted on.  And it doesn’t hurt to be someone who submits many high quality spam reports, since those reports get a higher priority in the spam report queue.