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Detecting spam to bring you relevant and reliable results

Google invests in systems to ensure that sites don’t rise in Search results through deceptive or manipulative behavior. This is especially important because spam sites can harm or mislead people.

Illustration of two people typing on their own devices, using Google Search.

How Google keeps you safe on Search

Our systems find 40 billion spammy pages every day.

Why we fight against spam

Spam sites attempt to game their way to the top of Search results through a variety of techniques such as repeating keywords over and over, or showing Google content that’s different from what users see (something that’s known as “cloaking”). Hackers sometimes even get into legitimate sites and change them into spam sites that might redirect people into scams or worse.

How we target spam

We have clear guidelines that call out spammy behavior, and provide a clear process to appeal removals once violations have been addressed.

  • Automated detection

    Our automated systems can detect the vast majority of spam and keep it out of your top Search results, similar to how a good email system keeps spam from flooding your inbox.

  • Manual review

    The rest of spam is tackled manually by our spam removal team, who review pages and flag them if they violate the spam policies. When we take manual action on content, we try to alert the creator to help them address issues.

  • Reconsideration requests

    Once the problem has been remedied, a creator can submit their content for reconsideration. We process all of the reconsideration requests we receive.

  • Owner outreach

    We want website owners to have the information they need to get their sites in shape. That’s why, over time, we’ve invested substantial resources in communication and outreach to creators.

Protecting Search results

Collage of images showing Google automatically vetting Search results.

Transparency and security

Fighting spam to keep your results safe and useful is a daily challenge. We want to be transparent about how Search works, but we also have to be careful not to reveal too much detail that would allow people to game our search results and degrade the experience for everyone.

We learned this lesson the hard way. Back in 1999, Google’s founders published a seminal paper on PageRank, a key innovation in Google’s algorithm. Once that paper was published, spammers tried to game Google by paying each other for links.
Collage of images showing a person discovering a safe, relevant result

Evolving technology

Search is a powerful tool. It helps people find, share, and access an amazing wealth of content regardless of how they connect or where they are located. We work hard to ensure that you see high-quality Search results and not spam.

We’re continuously improving our spam-fighting technology and will continue working closely with webmasters and others to foster and support a high-quality web ecosystem.

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