Google Slaps Web Spammers With New Algorithm

Google today said it would make another change to its search engine algorithm in an effort to cut back on web sites showing up in search results that may be there because of the wrong reasons.

Spammers typically use what’s called “Black Hat SEO” as a way to gain higher rankings in search results, something Google has been making an effort to fight back against. Black Hat SEO tactics include “keyword stuffing” and “link spam“, which is often done via blog posts and comments, and link sites setup specifically for the purpose of increasing a site’s search engine rank.

While Google has been making adjustments to combat these techniques for some time, the company today said it would make another change that would further hit sites blatantly involved in webspam.

Related: How Attackers Use Search Engines and How You Can Fight Back!

“In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam,” Matt Cutts, a Distinguished Engineer at Google wrote in a blog post. “The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines. We’ve always targeted webspam in our rankings, and this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content.”

While the search giant said it’s making changes, as usual they are tight-lipped on details on specific changes made this time around for obvious reasons.

The change is scheduled to go live for all languages simultaneously. Earlier this year Google made a change that the company said impacted 11.8 percent of search results. This next round of adjustments is set to affect about 3.1% of queries in English to a degree that a regular user might notice. “The change affects roughly 3% of queries in languages such as German, Chinese, and Arabic, but the impact is higher in more heavily-spammed languages. For example, 5% of Polish queries change to a degree that a regular user might notice,” Cutts explained.