Chrome Web Store policy updates for Q3 2021

Over the years we've made a number of product and policy improvements to help ensure a quality experience for both users and developers. As part of this work, we've updated our best practices, and identifiednamed undesirable behaviors that create spammy experiences for users. Today, we're furthering this work by clarifying and updating two policies, to keep the quality of extensions high, and the experience for developers consistent:

# Keyword Spam Update

1. Keyword Spam is the practice of including irrelevant or excessive keywords in an extensions description in an attempt to manipulate its ranking, resulting in a spammy, negative user experience. We don't allow extensions with misleading, improperly formatted, non-descriptive, irrelevant, excessive, or inappropriate metadata, including but not limited to the extension's description, developer name, title, icon, screenshots, and promotional images. Developers should focus on providing a clear and well-written description that uses keywords appropriately and in context.

2. Some examples of Keyword Spam include:

   • Lists of sites/brands/keywords without substantial added value
   • Lists of regional locations
   • Unnatural repetition of the same keyword more than 5 times
   • Unattributed or anonymous user testimonials in the product's description.

More guidance on the Keyword Spam policy can be found in our FAQs.

# Enforcement Circumvention

1. Any attempt to circumvent intended limitations or enforcement actions will result in the immediate termination of your developer account, and possibly related developer accounts.

Taken together, these policy clarifications help ensure consistency to the developer experience, while also strengthening security and encouraging high quality products. These policy clarifications will go into effect on October 19, 2021. After that date, extensions in violation of these policies may be removed from the Chrome Web Store and disabled.

We’re grateful to both users and developers for helping us make the Chrome Web Store a safe and secure way to extend the browser. As always, we welcome your feedback.

Posted by Rebecca Soares and Benjamin Ackerman, Chrome Trust and Safety Team Leads

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash