Cointelegraph’s organic search traffic is showing signs of recovery in early September 2026, nearly 11 months after a Google manual penalty under the site reputation abuse policy caused the publisher’s search visibility to collapse.
Ahrefs and Semrush data show a sharp increase beginning around August 30, when Google stopped applying site reputation policy manual penalties to search results shown in the European Economic Area (EEA).
By September 7, Ahrefs’ estimated monthly organic traffic approaches 4,433 visits, while Semrush displays 5,387. Before the latest increase, Ahrefs estimated close to zero monthly organic visits, while Semrush estimated several hundred.
The timing suggests Google’s change is helping readers find Cointelegraph again.
What Google Changed for European Searches
Google announced the change on August 28, following discussions with the European Commission. It applies to searches made within the EEA, which includes the 27 EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
Google’s reputation policy targets third-party content published primarily to exploit an established website’s ranking reputation, a practice often called parasite SEO.
From August 30, manual actions under that policy no longer affect search results shown to users inside the EEA. Enforcement outside the region remains unchanged. The distinction depends on the searcher’s location, rather than where the publisher operates.
Google can still separate an affected section from the rest of a website in its systems, allowing it to rank independently over time. Publishers also continue receiving manual-action notices through Search Console. A website can therefore regain visibility in European searches while remaining subject to a penalty elsewhere.
Cointelegraph’s Search Collapse Began in October 2025
Cointelegraph’s organic search traffic fell sharply in early October 2025. The crypto news outlet subsequently removed its iGaming section, which hosted third-party gambling content.
Prior to the Google penalty, SEO expert Timothy Malmros Genach published a series of investigations into Clickout Media and Finixio’s SEO practices, including one examining Cointelegraph’s iGaming section. That report alleged that Clickout Media operated the section to exploit Cointelegraph’s established search reputation. Genach later removed the investigations after Clickout Media served him with a lawsuit, reluctant to enter a lengthy legal process.
Cointelegraph’s estimated monthly organic traffic dropped from millions of visits to nearly zero. The loss of visibility extended to branded searches, with even searches for “Cointelegraph” failing to place its website among the results.
