Google has shared its statistics on link removal requests, which shows that more than one million links are being removed each month.
The search engine giant says it is another move to be more transparent as to what influences search query results. Blogging about the decision, it said it was eager to show when:
“something gets in the way of the free flow of information.”
The greater transparency promised is something which will surely assist SEO marketers, however, the results of the links removed makes for interesting reading in themselves.
The headline figure came from Microsoft – with the company requesting over half a million links be removed in April 2012 alone.
The British Phonographic Industry, and US media company NBC Universal requested the second and third highest number of removals respectively in the month.
Concerns over piracy was responsible for the majority link removal requests, with a Google spokesman saying to the AFP Agency:
“We remove more search results for copyright reasons than for any other reason”
It went on to say that about 97% of all requests for link removal were granted, with the average time taken for SERPs to be affected to be about 11 hours.
Whilst many have applauded the prompt action taken, there are many who believe that Google and national government’s should be taking a far more proactive role.
Geoff Taylor, the BPI chief executive said:
“This data shows that placing all of the burden on copyright owners to deal with infringement is unworkable.”
Related posts:
- Requests to remove web content double for Google
- Requests to remove web content almost double
- State monitoring of Google in significant increase
- Microsoft confirms takedown request also sent to Bing
- The difference between link building and link buying
