Google Search Actively Working On Fixing Obituary Spam Problem

Google is actively working on fixing the problem it was with showing too much spam for obituary-related queries. Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, said “it’s something we’re actively looking at ways to improve.”

This was in response to a complaint by Matthew Brown who wrote, “Searching for obituary is both depressing and also a comprehensive look at every gross SEO tactic in play today. Which is also depressing.”

In which Sullivan replied on X saying, “It is. And it’s something we’re actively looking at ways to improve.”

As we covered last month, the obituary spam situation on Google Search is out of control.

The issue is when there is a data void in Google Search, which means Google does not have any other information that matches the query well, it will show lower quality results. Over time, when true and honest obituaries are published, the spammy ones do get downgraded, but until then, there is just a lot of spam to see in the search results.

For many, when a death just learned about, they go to Google and only see the spam, that is until weeks later when the family is able to think straight and put together an official obituary.

Here are those posts:

It is. And it’s something we’re actively looking at ways to improve.

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) November 16, 2023

I am looking forward to these improvements before someone publishes an orbitary about yours truly.

Forum discussion at X.