Recovering from Black Hat/Negative SEO with a twist
-
Hey everyone,
This is a first for me, I'm wondering if anyone has experienced a similar situation and if so, what the best course of action was for you.
Scenario
- In the process of designing a new site for a client, we discovered that his previous site, although having decent page rank and traffic had been hacked. The site was built on Wordpress so it's likely there was a vulnerability somewhere that allowed someone to create loads of dynamic pages; www.domain.com/?id=102, ?id=103, ?id=104 and so on. These dynamic pages ended up being malware with a trojan horse our servers recognized and subsequently blocked access to.
We have since helped them remedy the vulnerability and remove the malware that was creating these crappy dynamic pages.
- Another automated program appears to have been recently blasting spam links (mostly comment spam and directory links) to these dynamically created pages at an incredibly rapid rate, and is still actively doing so. Right now we're looking at a small business website with a touch over 500k low-quality spammy links pointing to malware pages from the previously compromised site.
Important: As of right now, there's been no manual penalty on the site, nor has a "This Site May Have Been Compromised" marker in the organic search results for the site. We were able to discover this before things got too bad for them.
Next Steps?
The concern is that when the Penguin refresh occurs, Google is going to notice all these garbage links pointing to those malware pages and then potentially slap a penalty on the site. The main questions I have are:
- Should we report this proactively to the web spam team using the guidelines here? (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport?hl=en&pli=1)
- Should we request a malware review as recommended within the same guidelines, keeping in mind the site hasn't been given a 'hacked' snippet in the search results? (https://support.google.com/webmasters/topic/4598410?hl=en&ref_topic=4596795)
- Is submitting a massive disavow links file right now, including the 490k-something domains, the only way we can escape the wrath of Google when these links are discovered? Is it too hopeful to imagine their algorithm will detect the negative-SEO nature of these links and not give them any credit?
Would love some input or examples from anyone who can help, thanks in advance!
-
I never mentioned anything about Pigeon?
-
Um....IQ? Did you miss the Pigeon update of a couple of months ago?
Tons of talk on same, my own fav from Mike here -
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/10/05/post-pigeon-geo-assessment-how-did-traffic-change-by-city/
-
Should we report this proactively to the web spam team using the guidelines here? No
**Should we request a malware review as recommended within the same guidelines, keeping in mind the site hasn't been given a 'hacked' snippet in the search results? **
No
**Is submitting a massive disavow links file right now, including the 490k-something domains, the only way we can escape the wrath of Google when these links are discovered? Is it too hopeful to imagine their algorithm will detect the negative-SEO nature of these links and not give them any credit? **
Yes
This sounds to me like you need to be thinking 'damage limitation', and by submitting a disavow now, you will be doing just this. Don't worry about the fact there are so many domains there, that is what the tool is all about. However, Penguin hasn't had a refresh in some time (12 months), so one might consider this and think that while you have time on your side to fix it, a refresh could be round the corner - so hop on it
-Andy
-
Sounds like fun!
I did write a lovely answer which unfortunately got lost so I'll summaries a bit below-
1. I wouldn't recommend telling Google as you might not have a penalty now but you might be temping Googles wrath
2. As you've not been marked as malware and you've removed it you should be fine but you can always try if you want to sleep better
3.Disavow proactively is a great idea Google like this approach too, It also means rather than hoping Google might ignore the links its will defiantly ignore them with the disavow list.. Further to this I've got two more options for you. you can block wildcard/dynamic pages in your Robots which will help stop Google even getting to them to find out you've got some bad links assuming you don't need the pages for your site. If you check your referring domains weekly and update the disavow list as well if you're still "under attack".
Just a quick heads up after disavowing the link you may drop down in rankings as you're removing the links however there is also a chance you can go up if you're under a algo penalty.
You can find some good tips here too - http://www.searchenginejournal.com/combat-recover-negative-seo-attack-survival-guide/114507/
Hope some of that helps and I wish I could of posted my reply but I don't have the time to rewrite it I'm afraid. Good luck to you!
-
I have a lot going on right now, but if you PM the domain, I can take a look in a week or so.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
International SEO question
We are based in the UK, if we make sure to do the following .com domain
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | BobAnderson
US Phone number
US currency 201
US language Content
server is CDN in the US
Language Meta Tags
Local Search Registration
geographic target via Google Webmaster Tools would the domain under a UK company registrant be an issue for google thinking we are US based and have any impact on rankings.0 -
Best tips needed to compete in SEO industry? (Thank you in advance)
Hello Moz Friends, So I wanted to ask for your friendly tips. Im in Colorado and my competition has business names like Colorado SEO and then one company owns like 5 of the top 10 Google ranked sites under different names. Im an honest guy, but how does someone compete in a crazy competitive industry? How about you? Did you start at the very bottom and never got to the top? Or did you outrank the leaders? I know seo people are smart, but it's easy to wonder if there is any room left? So just wondering your success or failure stories with competing in a competitive market online Any tips are appreciated! Chris
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | asbchris0 -
Recovering from an algorithmic bodyslam
Hi there. We inherited a client who didn't receive a manual penalty, but holy cow they have a good sized algorithmic penalty on their site. Here is what we have done since receiving the client: Client arrived with a bad backlink profile and an algorithmic penalty. We knew this, but underestimated the effort in removing it. We researched great forum posts like http://moz.com/community/q/google-penguin-2-0-how-to-recover http://moz.com/community/q/penguin-2-1-how-to-recover The researched great blog posts like http://moz.com/ugc/what-a-penguin-recovery-looks-like http://moz.com/ugc/recovery-from-google-penguin-tips-from-the-trenches http://moz.com/ugc/a-theory-for-preventing-recovering-from-a-google-penguin-penalty Outside of Moz, we researched a lot as well. We felt armed that we needed to do 3 major things. Remove all of the bad backlinks Create good content within the site Fix any unnatural on page SEO tactics (keyword stuffing, etc) Here is how we tackled it step by step Step 1: For step 1, we contacted over 100 of the bad backlinks. Many of them wanted a fee for removing the backlinks. They were from sites that were literally like "freeseobacklinks.org". Crazy bad ones. But we only got a few removed. The rest either ignored us or wanted some money. Hence our round(s) of disavow. Our SEO manager at the time of the first disavow only did 50 domains on the disavow. She was extremely thorough, followed the guidelines to a T, and performed it. We actually fell back in ranking afterward, even though I didn't think it was possible. With nothing to lose, besides lots of time and budget, we went through thousands of links and manually compiled an extravagant spreadsheet for our next round of disavow. Again, limited to no response from site owners. So we went ahead and pushed forth with nearly 300 domains for the disavow. By this time, the site was in the abyss, so it couldn't hurt anymore. We kept all of the great links, which surprisingly there were a fair amount. Step 2:
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Boogily
Our SEO manager and our content writer began to write for the website. Our graphic design created an awesome infographic, and a good slideshare too. We've been putting 3-4 articles / posts on the site monthly. Typical word range is 750+ Step 3:
We did a full site analysis and removed all unnatural location based keywords. There wasn't a ton of unnatural on page SEO going on. The bulk of the damage must have came from the bad backlinks. Summary:
On top of this we have been doing this for at least 6 months. All of the pages that are hit by the penalty are just gone. Nowhere to be found on Google, unless you search with the site operator or search for that exact page. We seem to make zero headway with all of this. I'm not sure what else we can be doing. We even optimized for conversions and longer time on site, as well as page speed. We've confirmed that there is no manual penalty. I'm starting to feel as if the site is permanently deemed bad or something. I also don't want to keep wasting our writers and manager's time on this one. Any ideas on next steps? Can anyone restore my confidence in this site? Thanks for the long read and any response, Have a great day,1 -
Recovering from Pinguin Penalty
We have big issue with a website who has been hardly penalized by Pinguin on october 4th. After a lot of try to remove bad links and sending two disavow files, none of our actions has improved our situation. We're wondering if this solution might be good : changing the domaine name Keeping the same content Not using Webmaster tools and redirect 301 and wait until the site will be fully indexed Build new links Please tell us your opinion and solution. Thanks
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | webit400 -
Is linking out to different websites with the same C-Block IP bad for SEO?
Many SEOs state that getting (too many) links from the same C-Block IP is bad practice and should be avoided. Is this also applicable if one website links out to different websites with the same C-Block IP? Thus, website A, B and C (on the same server) link to website D (different server) could be seen as spam but is this the same when website D links to website A, B and C?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | TT_Vakantiehuizen0 -
Purchasing Expired Domains for SEO Value?
While doing competitive research for a client I have stumbled on a "site developed by" footer link for a fairly established business that points to an expired domain. I'm inclined to notify the business in question that the link is expired BUT I was curious to get some thoughts on if purchasing this domain and redirecting it to my site or another would be a good purely "SEO tactic" as it would seemingly pass "juice"??? Thanks, Dave
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | DavidGadarian0 -
Which SEO companies offer Penalty analysis?
I'm having a hard time finding a (good) SEO company which specializes itself in Penalty analysis? Any recommendations? I only found Bruce Clay, but they charge 8,000$ :)...
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | wellnesswooz0 -
Seo style="display: none;" ?
i want to have a funktion which shortens text in categorie view in my shop. apple is doing this in their product configurator see the "learn more" button at the right side: http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MC915LL/A apple is doing this by adding dynamic content but i want it more seo type by leaving the content indexable by google. i know from a search that this was used in the past years by black had seos to cover keywordstuffing. i also read an article at google. i beleive that this is years ago and keywordstuffing is completly no option anymore. so i beleive that google just would recognise it like the way its meant to be. but if i would not be sure i would not ask here 🙂 what do you think?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | kynop0