---
title: "SEOCode Rule Engine 1.4.0: Eight New Rules Covering Spam, Schema, AMP, and Canonicalization"
date: 2026-08-20
version: 1.4.0
slug: rule-engine-1-4-0
description: "Version 1.4.0 adds eight new rules responding to Google's August 2026 Spam Update, updated review snippet and product schema guidelines, AMP hosting changes, and canonicalization timing clarifications."
tags:
- changelog
- schema
- technical-seo
- spam
- amp
- canonicalization
- reviews
- product-schema
---
SEOCode Rule Engine 1.4.0: Eight New Rules Covering Spam, Schema, AMP, and Canonicalization
Version 1.4.0 adds eight new rules in response to Google documentation updates and the August 2026 Spam Update, covering review integrity, product schema, AMP hosting behavior, canonicalization timing, and more.
New Rules
google-august-2026-spam-update — Google August 2026 Spam Update Released
Severity: Warning | Category: Technical
What it checks: This rule flags codebases and configurations that exhibit patterns associated with Google's spam policies: cloaking (serving different content to Googlebot than to users), doorway pages, scaled content abuse, site reputation abuse, back button hijacking, and fake reviews.
Why it matters: Google's spam updates can cause severe ranking drops or complete removal from search results. Unlike broad core updates, spam updates target specific policy violations. If your site is hit, rankings do not recover on their own — you must identify and fix the violation, then submit a reconsideration request if a manual action was applied.
What to do: Review your codebase for any server-side logic that conditionally serves different HTML to known crawler user agents. Audit any programmatically generated content at scale. If you implement review markup, see the fake-incentivized-reviews-policy rule below.
fake-incentivized-reviews-policy — Fake or Undisclosed Incentivized Reviews Violate Review Snippet Guidelines
Severity: Critical | Category: Schema
What it checks: This rule detects Review and AggregateRating structured data on pages where reviews may be fake or where incentivized reviews are not disclosed. It flags patterns such as review markup on pages with no visible review content, or review schema on pages that solicit reviews in exchange for discounts or other benefits without disclosure.
Why it matters: Google has added an explicit guideline to its review snippet documentation prohibiting fake reviews and requiring disclosure of incentivized reviews. Violations put your site at risk of losing review rich results eligibility entirely. Depending on severity, a manual spam action may also be applied. This applies to both reviews you collect directly and third-party review markup you implement on your site.
What to do:
- Never implement
Reviewschema for reviews that were not genuinely given by real customers. - If you offer incentives (discounts, free products, loyalty points) in exchange for reviews, the review markup and the visible review text must clearly disclose this.
- Audit any third-party review widgets you embed — you are responsible for the markup they inject into your pages.
product-category-schema — Missing google_product_category in Product Structured Data
Severity: Info | Category: Schema
What it checks: This rule checks Product and Offer structured data for the presence of the google_product_category property, which aligns with the Google Merchant Center feed attribute of the same name.
Why it matters: Google's updated product structured data documentation now details how google_product_category can be used within schema.org markup. Providing this property helps Google classify your products accurately in Search and Shopping, improving discoverability in merchant listings.
What to do: If you have Product or Offer schema on your pages, add the google_product_category property using the appropriate Google product taxonomy value. This is the same value you would use in a Merchant Center feed. If you do not run Shopping campaigns, this is informational — the property is not required for basic product rich results.
sale-price-effective-date-schema — Missing Sale Price Effective Date in Product Structured Data
Severity: Info | Category: Schema
What it checks: This rule checks Offer structured data on pages with a priceValidUntil or sale price for the presence of sale duration properties that correspond to the Merchant Center sale_price_effective_date attribute.
Why it matters: Google has added a "Sale duration" section to the Merchant listing guide explaining how to express sale price validity windows in schema.org markup. Without effective date information, Google cannot determine when a sale price is valid, which can result in incorrect or missing sale price display in product rich results and merchant listings.
What to do: If you mark up sale prices in your Offer schema, add the relevant schema.org date range properties to define when the sale price is active. Align these values with what you submit in your Merchant Center feed under sale_price_effective_date. Do not leave sale price markup in place after a sale has ended.
canonicalization-reevaluation-time — Canonicalization Changes Take Time to Re-Evaluate
Severity: Info | Category: Technical
What it checks: This rule detects pull requests that modify canonical tags (<link rel="canonical">), hreflang annotations, or other canonicalization signals within a short window after a previous change to the same signals on the same URLs.
Why it matters: Google's updated canonicalization troubleshooting guide clarifies that changes to canonical signals are not processed immediately. Re-evaluation can take days to weeks depending on crawl frequency and site size. Making rapid successive changes to canonical signals while waiting for previous changes to take effect creates conflicting signals and can further delay resolution.
What to do: When you change canonical tags or hreflang annotations, allow sufficient time — at minimum several days, potentially weeks for large sites — before making further changes to the same signals. Use Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool to monitor how Google has indexed a URL before modifying its canonicalization signals again.
amp-direct-publisher-hosting — AMP Cache and Signed Exchanges No Longer Required for AMP Pages
Severity: Info | Category: Technical
What it checks: This rule flags build configurations, deployment scripts, or documentation comments that reference AMP Cache update steps or signed exchange (SXG) setup as required steps for AMP pages to appear in Google Search.
Why it matters: Google has changed how it serves AMP pages: users are now taken directly to the publisher's AMP host rather than being served from the AMP Cache or via signed exchanges. This removes a maintenance burden. Existing AMP Cache configurations and signed exchange setups will not cause harm, but they are no longer required.
What to do: You do not need to take any action for existing AMP pages to continue appearing in Google Search. If your deployment pipeline includes steps specifically to update the AMP Cache or configure signed exchanges for Google Search purposes, those steps can be removed. AMP content continues to rank on the same basis as any other web page.
social-video-platform-search-console — Social and Video Platform Content Not Tracked in Search Console
Severity: Info | Category: Technical
What it checks: This rule surfaces an informational notice for repositories that contain YouTube embeds, social media embeds, or other video platform integrations, flagging that dedicated Search Console reporting is now available for this content type.
Why it matters: Google has published a new guide on analyzing social and video platform content performance in Search Console. If your site publishes or embeds YouTube videos or social platform content, you can now measure how that content performs in Google Search through dedicated reporting — separate from your standard web search performance data.
What to do: No code changes are required. If your site includes YouTube or social platform content, review Google's new Search Console guide to understand what data is available and how to use it to inform content decisions.
package-tracking-early-adopters-closed — Package Tracking Early Adopters Program No Longer Accepting New Partners
Severity: Info | Category: Schema
What it checks: This rule flags any pull requests that add package tracking structured data markup on sites that are not already enrolled in Google's package tracking early adopters program.
Why it matters: Google has updated the package tracking documentation to confirm the early adopters program is closed to new applicants. Implementing package tracking schema without program enrollment will not produce rich results in Google Search.
What to do: If your site is not already an accepted partner in the package tracking program, do not implement package tracking structured data — it will have no effect. If you are an existing partner, review the updated eligibility and feature availability sections of the package tracking documentation to confirm your implementation remains compliant.
Sources & References
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