Parasite SEO is the practice of publishing content on high-authority third-party platforms — such as Forbes, HubPages, LinkedIn articles, or news wire services — to exploit that domain’s existing authority and rank for competitive queries quickly, rather than building authority on one’s own domain. The content often promotes the publisher’s own products or affiliate offers. The “parasite” framing reflects the one-sided benefit: the hosting platform receives little value while its domain authority is leveraged. Google’s 2024 site reputation abuse policy update explicitly targeted this practice, defining it as third-party content produced primarily to rank rather than to serve the host site’s audience. Sites found to be hosting parasite SEO content may face manual actions or algorithmic demotion.