Site was hacked - do I need to change my phone number?
-
The site I was leasing was hacked about a year ago. I've bought a new domain and changed everything about the site. It is completely separated from the old domain. However, my current phone number is still visible on the old site and I can't get it down. I really don't want to get a new phone number, but the SEO success of my new site is extremely important.
Is there anyway the fact that my old phone number on the hacked site could hurt my new site's standing in Google?
Thank you so much!
-
Yeah, like Miriam, I feel like I'm not understanding some key aspects of this situation. Why is the old site still live. How different is the new site? How is the old site being used?
My bigger concern, from a traditional SEO standpoint, would be that the old site might have pages/assets/etc. that are duplicates and could harm content on the new site. It's hard for me to see how the new site could be completely different and still be the same core business, honestly. In terms of the phone number, though, I don't think Google really associates that with any kind of spam or malware signal. The fact that the phone number is on another site probably isn't going to harm your new site, in a core SEO sense.
If the owners of the old domain started to generally make trouble and try to ruin your reputation, then having people connect the number to you wouldn't be great. Again, I'm not clear on how bad the situation is. It's remotely possible Google could use the phone number to connect the sites, in the sense of seeing them as owned by the same people, but I think that's far-fetched. That would probably only come into play with something like a link network.
So, short answer is that I think the risk is small, but I hesitate to say that decisively without knowing more.
-
This is a real toughie! If this is a local business, then I'm guessing that you are concerned about the ramifications of getting a new phone number and then having two numbers associated with your core business NAP (name, address, phone). You would be right to be concerned about this, as no local business should have more than one local phone number floating around the citation ecosystem. This is just Local SEO 101. Horse sense would indicate keeping your original number ... but ... I do feel concerned about the negative effects of having that number on a hacked website that may/may not also contain other references to parts of your business NAP, too.
I'm trying to weigh this on a risk/benefit scale. Without fully understanding all of the details of what is present on the hacked site, it's hard to give good advice here. What I will do is call on one of our traditional SEO experts to chime in here regarding the negative impact of your number being listed on a hacked site that used to belong to you. If this was some third party site, like a business directory, and it got hacked, I don't believe Google would fault you for having been listed there, provided all of your other citations were in good, consistent shape. But we're not talking about a third party site; we're talking about a website which I'm guessing features content about your business on it, right? So, things become grey here.
And, the confusion also stretches into the alternative solution of starting with a completely new number and cleaning up all of your citations to reflect this new number. If there is content about your business, your business name, phone number or address on the hacked website, and you can't clean it up, then this means that it will be acting as a bad citation for whatever new you're trying to build. Again, if this was a single third party directory you just couldn't clean up, I wouldn't be that worried. Provided most of your citations are consistent, you're generally okay. But this is a website that belonged to you - presumably perceived as being authoritative about your business.
So, I guess I'm a bit stumped. Let's see what one of our traditional SEOs will say!
-
Hi
Yes I would defiantly get a new number, but if you can afford to keep your old number as some of your old customers / contacts may try and contact you on it - if you can just purchase a number to divert you to your old number this would be do.
On your new website you don't want Google to take the chance of linking the two businesses as I am assuming they will be doing a lot of black hat SEO and use the domain as a churn and burn site - if as you say SEO success of your new site is important don't take the risk of getting linked to your old domain by 1 telephone number.
Its not a huge amount to spend on a new number, but could stop you being penalised by Google, which could cost you more in the long run.
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
-
Should I use Rel-Canonicals links for a News site with similar articles each year
Our small town news site provides coverage in a lot of seasonal areas, and we're struggling with the current year's content ranking above previous years. For instance, every year we cover the local high school football team, and create 2-3 articles per game. We'll also have some articles preseason with upcoming schedule and general team "talk". We've seen where articles from past seasons will rank higher than the current season, presumably because the older articles have more links to them from other sources (among other factors). We don't want to delete these old articles and 301 them to the newer article, since most articles include information/stories about specific players...and their families don't want the article to ever come down. Should we rel-canonical the older articles to the newer one, or perhaps to the "high school football" category page? If to the category page, should we rel-canonical even the new articles to that main category page? Thanks for the help.
Local Website Optimization | | YourMark.com0 -
On what pages of my site should I put schema.org structured markup for an Aggregate Review of a Concrete Construction Contractors work?
I have a concrete contractor that I do a site for. He has many reviews from Home Advisor. So I created a Structured Data Markup using HTML5\. I put the the AggregateReview near the bottom of the About Us page at [http://www.skv-construction.com/about-us.html](http://www.skv-construction.com/about-us.html). Question 1: Should I also put the AggregateReview on the home page, or on specific project pages. Question 2: How will Google use the data now if the About page is NOT searched or displayed in SERPs. Does Google display this markup when and where they want to? Question 3: Siince this is a Local Business, should I embed the AggregateReview within the LocalSearch tag. I passed the Google test as it is for the Aggregate Review! But I have the review wrapped in the HomeAndConstructionBusiness tag. Here is the code: "http://schema.org/HomeAndConstructionBusiness"> # Quality Workmanship w 50 Yrs Experience "http://schema.org/AggregateRating"> 4.37 stars-based on 54 reviews at ["http://www.homeadvisor.com/rated.SKVConstruction.18028291.html"](<a) target="_blank">Home Advisor "http://schema.org/PostalAddress"> 10005 Fair Lane <spam itemprop="addresslocality" union=""></spam> IL 60180 (847) 364 0161 ["http://www.skv-construction.com/contact-us.html"](<a)>Contact Us Price Range: All Jobs Custom; Call for Quote or Visit Web Site Would appreciate any help. This markup is so vague, I can see why few people are using it. Maybe you should do a Video training or extended training on how to's. Vernon Wanner 815-332-8062
Local Website Optimization | | VernonWanner0 -
Understand how site redesign impacts SEO
Hi everyone, I have, what I think, is kind of a specific question, but hoping you guys can help me figure out what to do. I have a client that recently changed their entire website (I started working with them after it happened, so I can't comment on what the site was like as far as content was before). I know they were using a service that I see a lot of in the service industry that aim to capitalize on local business (i.e. "leads nearby" or "nearby now") by creating pages for each targeted city and I believe collecting reviews for each city directly on the website. When they redesigned their website, they dropped that service and now all those pages that were ranking in SERPs are coming back as 404s because they are not included in the new site (I apologize if this is getting confusing!) The site that they moved to is a template site that they purchased the rights to from an already successful company in their same industry, so I do think the link structure probably changed, especially with all of the local pages that are no longer available on the site. Note: I want to use discretion in using company names, but happy to share more info in a private message if you'd like to see the sites I am talking about as I have a feeling that this is getting confusing 🙂 Has anyone had experience with something like this? I am concerned because even though I am targeting the keywords being used previously to direct content to the local pages to new existing pages, traffic to the website has dropped by nearly 60% and I know my clients are going to want answers-- and right now, I only have guesses. I am really looking forward to and so greatly appreciate any advice you might be able to share, I'm at a bit of a loss right now.
Local Website Optimization | | KaitlinNS0 -
I have 5 sites each targeting a different service my company offers, should I consolidate to one site or merge to one?
I run a photo booth company and have a site for each service I offer. Are smaller sites that are SEO for each service stronger than just having pages for each service on one mother site?thanks,
Local Website Optimization | | hashtagltd0 -
Expert Advice Needed: Single Domain vs Multiple Domain for 2 Different Countries?
Hi MOZers, We are looking for some advice on whether to have a single TLD(.com) or 2 separate domains (.ca) & (.com) Our website will have different products & pricing for each of US users(.com) and Canada users(.ca). Since, we are targeting different countries & user groups with each domain - we are not concerned about "duplicate content". So, does it make more sense to have a single domain for compounding our content marketing efforts? Or, Will it be more beneficial to have seperate domains for the geo-targeting benefits on Google.CA & Google.COM? Looking forward to some great suggestions.
Local Website Optimization | | ScorePromotions0 -
Drastic changes in keyword rankings on a daily basis
Anybody ever seen keyword rankings for a site change drastically from day to day? I've got a client, a local furniture store, whose local keywords (furniture + city) rank consistently well without much change, but when it comes to broader keyword rankings (like "furniture" or "furniture store") in their zip code, they'll go from ranking at the top of Google one day to not being ranked at all the next (at least according to Raven Tools). My best guess is that it's just a reflection of personalized results from Google, but such a dramatic change day in and day out makes me wonder.
Local Website Optimization | | ChaseMG0 -
How to target a site to only specific US states?
Hey Guys, Does anyone have experience or can point me to the right documentation about geo targeting possibilities for specific states in the US or specific areas in the world. Local SEO does not apply in my case, since my website is not a business nor have a physical address. My website offers information that is only relevant for specific states in the US, how can I leverage my I optimisation to gain more exposure in those specific states? I really appreciate any help. A
Local Website Optimization | | Mr.bfz0 -
Why My Site is Ranked for Few Hours on Daily Basis in Google SERPs
We have observed Google is shuffling our ranking on daily basis for our website: www.strokesexhibits.com, which is annoying. Almost on daily basis, in evening hours we are in ranking against almost every keyword for few hours (roughly 6-12 hours) but in the morning hours we are back to 50+ to 100+ positions. This is not happening with our domain only but facing same issue with the Google plus pages and few articles which we have on some high authority sites are behaving in same way. For better understanding, please have a look on following stats (Evening Screenshots were recorded yesterday after 8:00 PM, Morning screenshots were recorded after 9.30 AM - GMT +4 Time Zone). all following results are related with google.ae Keyword: Exhibition Stand Evening: 2 Google plus posts are in ranking + One main website page is ranking. Position 2: http://screencast.com/t/Yf2SLQNRJEm Position 4, 6: http://screencast.com/t/sDs2nShaAGr2 Morning: Google Plus pages disappeared + Different main website page is in ranking in back pages. Position 87: http://screencast.com/t/XT8hCEmOY Keyword: Exhibition stands Evening: 2 Google Plus posts are in ranking + One main website page Position 2,3,6: http://screencast.com/t/kF3PaVtwWe Morning: All above pages disappeared from ranking & new pages appeared in back pages. Position 75: http://screencast.com/t/nMTEWJlT Keyword: Exhibition stand design Evening: 2 Google Plus & one main website page is in ranking Position 4,5: http://screencast.com/t/ENUg4Do4i Position 78: http://screencast.com/t/xf8NeMzH Morning: Above pages disappeared and 2 new pages got ranking in back pages. Position 72, 73: http://screencast.com/t/1VidK4cx Keyword: Exhibition companies in dubai Evening: 2 Google Plus pages are on first page + Home page of website on back pages. Position 4: http://screencast.com/t/F3ljdakI3bU Position 8: http://screencast.com/t/evuDLuuL Position 70: http://screencast.com/t/xQ24Mdm9DV Morning: Home page dropped 11 positions + google plus disappeared Position 81: http://screencast.com/t/FD1IxnqL Keyword: Exhibition stand fabrication: Evening: 2 main website + 2 google plus + 1 second brand site + 1 third party website + 1 youtube link – all related to us are in ranking Position 1,2: http://screencast.com/t/kZACVnUS1yG Position: 4,5,7: http://screencast.com/t/JyAKX2bv66t Position 11,12: http://screencast.com/t/2CdJMMHB8 Morning: One page lost by position 1 + One page disappeared and new page appeared in ranking + google plus disappeared + youtube gained ranking of 2 positions + 3rd party link also gained ranking by 3 positions. Position 2, 4: http://screencast.com/t/JwJfa0Je Position 8, 10: http://screencast.com/t/wHup3X6Isu Keyword: Exhibition stand contractor Evening: 2 Google plus links + One main website link on back pages. Position 4,6: http://screencast.com/t/bMJlI7cco Position 100: http://screencast.com/t/twBOwFbR Morning: Google plus disappeared + main website page still on back pages & gained 2 positions. Position 98: http://screencast.com/t/tMXHmkiQWFE Keyword: Exhibition stand installation Evening: 2 main website + one Google plus is in ranking Position 2,4,5: http://screencast.com/t/GfyXZn19 Morning: All 3 pages disappeared & new single page is in ranking Position 3: http://screencast.com/t/i0fdgZvVZwUk Any Suggestion???
Local Website Optimization | | strokesinteriors0