Algorithm Rolled Out: 6, October 2016
Algorithm Summary: Overall Gist
The hacked spam update aimed to reduce the visibility of hacked websites in search results. Do you rely entirely on search engines, particularly Google, for business? Do you get the most business leads from Google? Is Google your sole source of business and marketing? Is your company’s website ever hacked? If this is the case, the following information may make you feel uneasy if your company’s website is hacked. Yes, you read that correctly!
According to the SEO news broadcasting website “Search Engine Land,” Google has decided to target websites that have been hacked by hackers and remove those hacked websites from its search results for the safety and convenience of its users worldwide. “Google says it’s rolling out a series of search algorithm changes that “aggressively” target the appearance of hacked spam in its search results,” according to Search Engine Land.
Ning Song, a software engineer at Google, said in a blog post, “The Search Giant Google is tightening its algorithms to remove hacked sites from its search results.”
“We are aggressively targeting hacked spam to protect users and webmasters,” Ning Song wrote in his blog post. “The algorithmic changes will impact roughly 5% of queries, depending on the language,” he added. Users may notice that as we roll out the new algorithms, only the most relevant results are shown for certain queries, reducing the number of results displayed.”
When asked why these algorithms are needed, Ning Song responded, “This is because a large amount of hacked spam is being removed and should improve shortly.” “We’re still fine-tuning our systems to weed out bad content while retaining organic, legitimate results.” We are all aware that hacked websites pose ongoing security concerns for users; however, this cluster of hacked websites has recently been identified as a problem for the search giant (Google) itself. Sophos (an IT security firm) claimed in early 2015 that it had notified Google of “hundreds of thousands” of high-ranking, cloaked PDF documents on hacked websites. In addition, Google is removing hacked websites from search results because they are the second most common cause of manual actions.
To address the issues caused by hacked websites, Google has asked web admins, site owners, and SEOs to post questions or feedback on the Webmaster Help Forums.
Is it possible that your website has been hacked? Do you require assistance?
Unfortunately, if your company’s website is hacked, it will be removed from Google’s search results sooner or later. The only way to keep your website from being removed from search results or hacked is to contact an experienced SEO company as soon as possible. So, do you want to keep your website safe from hackers? Do you want to make your website “hacker proof”? Want to protect your website from Google’s new algorithm that aggressively targets hacked spam? If so, don’t hesitate to contact our SEO experts for immediate assistance!