Google has released a series of statistics which reveal how the search giant fought web spam in 2017.
The statistics are part of Google’s annual Webspam Report.
This report contains information about the most common webspam tactics utilized throughout the year, and the extent to which Google has been able to combat the efforts of bad actors.
In addition, the report also details the proactive efforts Google has been involved with to help protect site owners from these webspam tactics.
Google defines “spam” as anything that violates its webmaster guidelines. Currently, the amount of spammy sites in search results is said to be around 0.5%.
Hacked sites is one type of spam tactic that was on the rise in 2017, with sites being hacked either to manipulate search rankings or spread malware.
Google says over 80 percent of hacked sites have been removed from search results.
Here are some other notable statistics from Google’s 2017 Webspam report:
- A year-over-year reduction of spam links by almost half.
- Action taken on nearly 90,000 user reports of search spam.
- 45 million messages to sent via Search Console letting site owners know about issues identified with their websites.
- Enhanced Safe Browsing protections for macOS devices.
- Enabled predictive phishing protection in Chrome.
- Launched “significant” improvements to protecting users from deceptive Chrome extension installation.
- Conducted more than 250 online and offline events around the world to audiences totaling over 220,000 website owners.
- Google’s official support forum had 63,000 threads generating over 280,000 contributing posts by 100+ Top Contributors globally.
Google will continue to pursue an abuse-free user experience on the web.
