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Monday, May 02, 2016
Search is a powerful tool. It helps people to find, share, and access an amazing wealth of content
regardless of how they connect or where they are located. As part of Google's search quality team,
we work hard to ensure that searchers see high quality search results—and not webspam. We fight
spam through a combination of algorithms and manual reviews to ensure that sites don't rise in
search results through
deceptive or manipulative behavior,
especially because those sites could harm or mislead users.
Below are some of the webspam insights we gathered in 2015, including trends we've seen, what
we're doing to fight spam and protect against those trends, and how we're working with you to make
the web better.
2015 webspam trends
We saw a huge number of websites being hacked—a 180% increase compared to the previous
year. Stay safe on the web and
take preventative measures
to protect your content on the web.
We saw an increase in the number of sites with
thin, low quality content.
Such content contains little or no added value and is often scraped from other sites.
2015 spam-fighting efforts
As always, our algorithms addressed the vast majority of webspam and search quality improvement
for users. One of our algorithmic updates helped to
remove the amount of hacked spam
in search results.
The rest of spam was tackled manually. We sent more than 4.3 million messages to webmasters to
notify them of
manual actions
we took on their site and to help them identify the issues.
We saw a 33% increase in the number of sites that went through spam clean-up efforts towards a successful
reconsideration process.
Working with users and webmasters for a better web
More than 400,000 spam reports were
submitted by users around the world. After prioritizing the reports, we acted on 65% of them,
and considered 80% of those acted upon to be spam. Thanks to all who submitted reports and
contributed towards a cleaner web ecosystem!
We conducted more than 200 online office hours and live events
around the world in 17 languages. These are great opportunities for us to help webmasters with
their sites and for them to share helpful feedback with us as well.
The
webmaster help forum
continued to be an excellent source of webmaster support. Webmasters had tens of thousands of
questions answered, including over 35,000 by users designated as Webmaster Top Contributors.
Also, 56 Webmaster Top Contributors joined us at our
Top Contributor Summit to
discuss how to provide users and webmasters with better support and tools. We're grateful for
our awesome Top Contributors and their tremendous contributions!
We're continuously improving our spam-fighting technology and working closely with webmasters and
users to foster and support a high-quality web ecosystem. (In fact, fighting webspam is one of the
many ways we
maintain search quality at Google.)
Thanks for helping to keep spammers away so users can continue accessing great content in Google
Search.
[[["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's search quality team combats webspam through algorithms and manual reviews to ensure high-quality search results and protect users from deceptive or manipulative sites.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIn 2015, Google observed a significant increase in hacked websites and sites with thin, low-quality content.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle's algorithms and manual actions addressed webspam issues, including a 33% rise in sites undergoing successful spam clean-up for reconsideration.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUser spam reports and webmaster collaborations, including online office hours and forum support, played a crucial role in maintaining a high-quality web ecosystem.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle continuously improves its spam-fighting technology and works with webmasters and users to foster a better web experience for everyone.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["In 2015, Google's search quality team combatted webspam through algorithms and manual reviews, sending over 4.3 million messages to webmasters about manual actions. They noted a 180% increase in hacked websites and more low-quality content. Over 400,000 user-submitted spam reports were received, with action taken on 65% and 80% of those found to be spam. Additionally, 200+ online events were held, and the webmaster help forum helped to address over 35,000 questions.\n"],null,["# How we fought webspam in 2015\n\nMonday, May 02, 2016\n\n\nSearch is a powerful tool. It helps people to find, share, and access an amazing wealth of content\nregardless of how they connect or where they are located. As part of Google's search quality team,\nwe work hard to ensure that searchers see high quality search results---and not webspam. We fight\nspam through a combination of algorithms and manual reviews to ensure that sites don't rise in\nsearch results through\n[deceptive or manipulative behavior](/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies),\nespecially because those sites could harm or mislead users.\n\n\nBelow are some of the webspam insights we gathered in 2015, including trends we've seen, what\nwe're doing to fight spam and protect against those trends, and how we're working with you to make\nthe web better.\n\n2015 webspam trends\n-------------------\n\n- We saw a huge number of websites being hacked---a 180% increase compared to the previous year. Stay safe on the web and [take preventative measures](/search/blog/2015/07/nohacked-how-to-avoid-being-target-of) to protect your content on the web.\n- We saw an increase in the number of sites with [thin, low quality content](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2604719). Such content contains little or no added value and is often scraped from other sites.\n\n2015 spam-fighting efforts\n--------------------------\n\n- As always, our algorithms addressed the vast majority of webspam and search quality improvement for users. One of our algorithmic updates helped to [remove the amount of hacked spam](/search/blog/2015/10/an-update-on-how-we-tackle-hacked-spam) in search results.\n- The rest of spam was tackled manually. We sent more than 4.3 million messages to webmasters to notify them of [manual actions](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2604824) we took on their site and to help them identify the issues.\n- We saw a 33% increase in the number of sites that went through spam clean-up efforts towards a successful [reconsideration process](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35843).\n\nWorking with users and webmasters for a better web\n--------------------------------------------------\n\n- More than 400,000 [spam reports](/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/report-spam) were submitted by users around the world. After prioritizing the reports, we acted on 65% of them, and considered 80% of those acted upon to be spam. Thanks to all who submitted reports and contributed towards a cleaner web ecosystem!\n- We conducted more than 200 [online office hours and live events](/search/events) around the world in 17 languages. These are great opportunities for us to help webmasters with their sites and for them to share helpful feedback with us as well.\n- The [webmaster help forum](https://support.google.com/webmasters/community) continued to be an excellent source of webmaster support. Webmasters had tens of thousands of questions answered, including over 35,000 by users designated as Webmaster Top Contributors. Also, 56 Webmaster Top Contributors joined us at our [Top Contributor Summit](/search/blog/2015/11/tc-summit-2015-celebrating-our) to discuss how to provide users and webmasters with better support and tools. We're grateful for our awesome Top Contributors and their tremendous contributions!\n\n\nWe're continuously improving our spam-fighting technology and working closely with webmasters and\nusers to foster and support a high-quality web ecosystem. (In fact, fighting webspam is one of the\nmany ways we\n[maintain search quality at Google](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5RZOU6vK4Q).)\nThanks for helping to keep spammers away so users can continue accessing great content in Google\nSearch.\n\n\nPosted by [Kiyotaka Tanaka](/search/blog/authors/kiyotaka-tanaka) and [Mary Chen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marychenn), User Education and Search Outreach"]]
