Website was hacked and is clean now. What to do next for Google?
-
Hai All,
Website was hacked and is clean now. What to do next?
- Send a Reconsideration Request to Google through Google search console. How detailed should this request be? As detailed as possible? And how much time will it usually take before Google responds?
- Should I remove all infected URL’s that Google has indexed by using Google search console, remove URL’s? Or is this not necessary?
(All the infected URL’s will give a 404 statuscode now)
Regards, Maurice
-
Hi Travis and Chris,
Thanks a lot for your helpfull answers!
We got a manual action by Google because of all the infected URL's.
The website is clean now and 2 professionals are monitoring the website continiously. So I am confident it will stay clean.
I have all the information now for the reconsidiration request.
Thanks again!
Regards, Maurice
-
TL;DR Follow Google's Guide on Recovering a Hacked Site
Orrrrr.... deze.
First, are you 100% sure it's clean? Some people get lucky, and have a clean backup. Others aren't so lucky.
Some hacks come in 'low and slow'. In other words, the site could have been compromised well before any outward signs became apparent. So definitely consult a security professional, if you haven't already done so. (Sometimes your host will 'clean' it for you, but miss critical points, and you're back in the same spot later.)
I suppose it couldn't hurt to remove URLs created by the hack. But if they're all gone, resolving as 404 ,they will drop out of the index in a couple weeks or sooner. The main thing is that the site is clean.
If you're sure it's clean, submit the site for review. The guides I've linked mention that it will take several weeks. And once Google has determined the site is clean, you should see any of the 'hacked' and/or 'malware' snippets disappear within a few days.
And I seriously recommend having a security professional review the site and hosting. A security professional will not only help you determine the cause of the problem, but also with mitigation of future risks. Best of luck.
-
Hi Maurice,
To answer this one accurately, we'll need a little more info on what happened. What was changed on your site as a result of the hacking? Were you hit with a manual penalty or is it just algorithmic? What have you done about fixing it so far?
With that info I can be a little more helpful
For some broader advice though, do everything you can to restore your site to its original state and if it has been a manual penalty, definitely provide a detailed account of what happened and what you're doing to fix it via Search Console. If it's just algorithmic, fixing your site and continuing to improve it is going to be your best way to fix it.
Regarding the pages that have been taken down, just make sure Screaming Frog or a similar tool isn't picking up any 404s from them - if it sees no 404s it means there are no remaining internal links to those pages. That being the case, the only 404s will be from external sites which aren't your responsibility. Once this is done, Google will realise fairly quickly (hours to a couple of weeks) that they're actually gone and de-index them.
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
-
How to index your website pages on Google 2020 ?
Hey! Hopefully, everyone is fine here I tell you some step how you are index your all website pages on Google 2020. I'm already implementing these same steps for my site Boxes Maker. Now Below I'm giving you some steps for indexing your website pages. These are the most important ways to help Google find your pages: Add a sitemap. ... Make sure people know your site. ... Ensure full navigation on your site. ... Apply the indexing application to your homepage. ... Sites that use URL parameters other than URLs or page names may be more difficult to broadcast.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | fbowable0 -
Restructuring Areas of a Website
Hi We are changing the structure of 2 areas of our site but the URL's won't be changing. We're effectively removing the first category level as it doesn't make much sense: Current structure Cat 1 - http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/cupboards-lockers Cat 2s - http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/lockers & http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/cupboards Cat 3s... New structure will look like Cat 1's http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/lockers & http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/cupboards Cat 2's.... etc The top category 1 doesn't rank for much & the level 2's perform better anyway. Will moving the structure change rankings even though the URLs don't change - just what is assigned to them in the back changes I know if the on-page content changes, things may be affected, but we're minimising this as much as possible. Thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
Can I define that one area of my website is a regualr news (no subscription) and the other part of the website is news that only subscribers can read?
Hi I have a client that have a news website, he asked me if he can define one area of his website to be a regular news that google can show on google news search results (no subscription) and the other part of the website is news that only subscribers can read? Thanks Roy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kadut1 -
If my website do not have a robot.txt file, does it hurt my website ranking?
After a site audit, I find out that my website don't have a robot.txt. Does it hurt my website rankings? One more thing, when I type mywebsite.com/robot.txt, it automatically redirect to the homepage. Please help!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | binhlai0 -
"Null" appearing as top keyword in "Content Keywords" under Google index in Google Search Console
Hi, "Null" is appearing as top keyword in Google search console > Google Index > Content Keywords for our site http://goo.gl/cKaQ4K . We do not use "null" as keyword on site. We are not able to find why Google is treating "null" as a keyword for our site. Is anyone facing such issue. Thanks & Regards
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vivekrathore0 -
Google does not favour php websites?
Hi there. An SEO company recently told me that google does not favour php development? This seems rather sketchy, I have not read that google doesn't favour this anywhere, did I just miss that part of SEO or are these guys blowing a little smoke?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ProsperoDigital1 -
Website.com/blog/post vs website.com/post
I have clients with Wordpress sites and clients with just a Wordpress blog on the back of website. The clients with entire Wordpress sites seem to be ranking better. Do you think the URL structure could have anything to do with it? Does having that extra /blog folder decrease any SEO effectiveness? Setting up a few new blogs now...
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PortlandGuy0 -
Does Google hate wordpress?
I have my categories pages set to noindex, follow. I deactivated the author and date based archives, and all the /page/2 /page/3 are noindex. Is this the right approach? I had thought about adding some text to the topic of each category page and then changing them to index. I'm using showing recent post excerpts on the homepage. Another other suggestions? I think two of my sites are in panda for no good reason. It seems like non-wordpress blogs in my industry do better than comparable wordpress sites.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | KateV0