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Tuesday, October 06, 2015
Recently we have started rolling out a series of algorithmic changes that aim to tackle hacked
spam in our search results. A huge amount of legitimate sites are hacked by spammers and used to
engage in abusive behavior, such as malware download, promotion of traffic to low quality sites,
porn, and marketing of counterfeit goods or illegal pharmaceutical drugs.
Website owners that don't implement standard best practices for security can leave their websites
vulnerable to being easily hacked. This can include government sites, universities,
small business, company websites, restaurants, hobby organizations, conferences, etc. Spammers and
cyber-criminals purposely seek out those sites and inject pages with malicious content in an
attempt to gain rank and traffic in search engines.
We are aggressively targeting hacked spam in order to protect users and webmasters.
The algorithmic changes will eventually impact roughly 5% of queries, depending on the language.
As we roll out the new algorithms, users might notice that for certain queries, only the most
relevant results are shown, reducing the number of results shown:
This is due to the large amount of hacked spam being removed, and should improve in the near
future. We are continuing tuning our systems to weed out the bad content while retaining the
organic, legitimate results. If you have any questions about these changes, or want to give us
feedback on these algorithms, you can drop by ourWebmaster Help Forums.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle is rolling out algorithmic changes to combat hacked spam in search results, addressing issues like malware, low-quality site promotion, and illicit content.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebsites of all types and sizes are vulnerable to hacking if security best practices aren't implemented, leading to the injection of malicious content for search engine manipulation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThese algorithmic changes may temporarily reduce the number of search results displayed for certain queries due to the removal of a significant amount of hacked spam, impacting approximately 5% of searches.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle is actively working to refine these algorithms to eliminate harmful content while preserving legitimate, organic search results.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebmasters can seek assistance and provide feedback regarding these changes through the Google Webmaster Help Forums.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Algorithmic updates are being implemented to combat hacked spam in search results, which affects approximately 5% of queries. These changes target malicious content injected into legitimate sites by spammers, including malware, low-quality site traffic, and illegal product promotion. The updates aim to remove hacked spam and display only the most relevant results. Ongoing tuning of the system continues to remove bad content. User feedback on these changes is welcomed on the Webmaster Help Forums.\n"],null,["# An update on how we tackle hacked spam\n\nTuesday, October 06, 2015\n\n\nRecently we have started rolling out a series of algorithmic changes that aim to tackle hacked\nspam in our search results. A huge amount of legitimate sites are hacked by spammers and used to\nengage in abusive behavior, such as malware download, promotion of traffic to low quality sites,\nporn, and marketing of counterfeit goods or illegal pharmaceutical drugs.\n\n\nWebsite owners that don't implement standard best practices for security can leave their websites\nvulnerable to being easily hacked. This can include government sites, universities,\nsmall business, company websites, restaurants, hobby organizations, conferences, etc. Spammers and\ncyber-criminals purposely seek out those sites and inject pages with malicious content in an\nattempt to gain rank and traffic in search engines.\n\nWe are aggressively targeting hacked spam in order to protect users and webmasters.\n\n\nThe algorithmic changes will eventually impact roughly 5% of queries, depending on the language.\nAs we roll out the new algorithms, users might notice that for certain queries, only the most\nrelevant results are shown, reducing the number of results shown:\n\n\nThis is due to the large amount of hacked spam being removed, and should improve in the near\nfuture. We are continuing tuning our systems to weed out the bad content while retaining the\norganic, legitimate results. If you have any questions about these changes, or want to give us\nfeedback on these algorithms, you can drop by our\n[Webmaster Help Forums](https://support.google.com/webmasters/go/community).\n\nPosted by Ning Song, Software Engineer"]]
