Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
My site got hacked and now i have 1000s of 404 pages and backlinks. Should i transfer my site to a new domain name and start again?
-
My site was hacked and I had 1000s of pages that should not exist created and has had 1000s of backlinks put in. Now i have the same pages and backlinks redirecting to 404 pages. Is this why my site crashed out of google and my SEO fixes since have made no progress to my problem?
-
Its not a big problem and there is no need to start on a new domain. In fact, this is common with WordPress websites that are not updated regularly.
I would advise the following:
-
Try to identify how did the hack take place - if its WordPress you can install the Sucuri Security (free) plugin that will help identify any compromised files.
-
Cleanup the website by deleting all the spam sub-folders & pages.
-
Update your WordPress, Theme and all Plugins (if this is a WordPress website).
-
You can have a quick fix for all the 404s by submitting a 410 response code for these URLs. This can be done through a number of free redirection plugins on WordPress. If its not a WordPress site, there are a number of other options to get this done too.
Hope that helps.
-
-
Are you unable to retrieve your site from your server? Is your domain or site hacked?
-
Its not a problem to have 404-Pages, when they are not linked internally. High amount of pages pointing to your site sounds like you may have to disavow stuff. If your page is known long enaugh for search engines, a new domain with equal content will make the problems move to the new domain (you may can see that happen for dejanseo switching without redirect to dejanmarketing).
Did Google saw the hack and asked you to solve the problem?
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 buy an expired domain that has already been redirected to some other website? Can I use it or redirect it to my own site if I purchase it?
I was going to purchase an expired domain but then I came to know that it has been redirected to some other website. I have two questions: Can I build a website around this domain if I purchase it? and will the Domain Authority remains the same ? Can I redirect it to my own site? and will all the Link Juice flow to my site?
Industry News | | Kamranktk0 -
Does a blog on a subdomain pass on SEO credit to the main domain?
When setting up a Hubspot blog you are asked to create a subdomain such as blog.website.com in order to have the blog hosted there. Two questions: 1. Does a blog on a subdomain pass on SEO credit to the main domain?
Industry News | | cmortensen
My understanding is that a subdomain is treated like a unique site but I'm not finding current articles to confirm this is still true. 2. If it does not pass on credit to the main domain and the subdomain is only building "SEO love" for itself but your posts are getting found and driving conversions... from a marketing perspective does this non-transfer of SEO credit really matter? Meaning if blog.website.com is linked to the navigation on website.com, your site has quality content, has relevant calls to action, and you are lead nurturing like a good marketer... does the passing of SEO credit matter if your posts are what's getting found and filling the top of the funnel? Thank you in advance,
Christine1 -
Backlink Query. Unranked pages of High Ranking sites.
Hi, So I was just wondering if someone with more knowledge than myself can answer this question for me. I have a site - currently sat on page 2 of google. On-site optimisation is done, however I am struggling to get backlinks that are from highranking pages. I am new to SEO so need a hand. My understanding of backlinks is that the higher the PR of the site that links to your 'money' site, the better that link is, and that these links are very hard to come by. (something that I am finding). Many times I have found sites that have a high rank and offer for a free listing, only for me to fill in details and get listed on a sub-page that has no ranking whatsoever. So my question is, are these kind of links worth the effort? Do they actually have any effect on rankings? And generally would anyone have any tips on the best sites to get links? Thanks
Industry News | | Chstphrjohn0 -
Should I implement 301 Redirects vs 410 in Removing Product Pages?
I manage an ecommerce site and had a question about 301 redirects vs 410 when removing product pages. What we have in place now is a 410 because we have removed products that are no longer available and the content itself no longer exists. In all my research, SEO Best Practices is to have a 301 in place. Should we replace our 410 with a 301 redirect or keep it?
Industry News | | UAScrubs0 -
How does nudity on a site affect search results?
One of my clients sells lingerie and with it being lingerie there are a fair few photos of bottoms and some exposed breasts. Gosh. Anyway I know how this affects Adwords campaigns - Google classifies the site as 'adult' and your ads don't show anywhere. I also know how it affects image searches. However how does it affect text seaches?? Are rankings demoted because of nudity? I've worked with a clothing site with some nudity on it before and this didn't affect it, but would love to hear from anyone with specific experience of thisThanks
Industry News | | neenor0 -
Page performance and reinstating previous version
Hi all, I hope there is a search guru out there who can assist with this. I decided 3 months ago that our SEO contractors weren't doing as well as they should be and after long discussion, i reoptimised all pages myself. Most are performing better now but sales and enquiries went through the floor. I have today found ranking information from the week before i made the changes, something i thought i had lost. Now i have this, i have found that one of the two main pages has gone from position 1 to position 38. This explains the problem. I know all things are not equal and in the intervening months, competitors have updated their sites and links, however, this is the security sector and things don't change much, so, all things being equal, would reinstating the old version of the page be likely to reinstate my previous ranking position or thereabouts? or will the MIGHTY GOOGLE punish me in some way for swapping back to a previous page version? We use a CMS system and all revisions are stored. The page in question is www.compoundsecurity.co.uk/security-equipment and the keyword in question is 'wireless alarms'. Any help will be greatly appreciated by this non SEO plebe. Cheers Si P.S. feel free to berate me for not recording all pertinent info about rankings BEFORE i star playing around with the site. It was my first time and i have well and truly learn my lesson.
Industry News | | DaddySmurf0 -
Changing Domains - How much link juice is lost with 301 redirect?
My company is thinking about rebranding and moving over to a new domain. While we dont have a lot of backlinks, we do have some very valuable ones that we hate to lose. That being said, I think we are in such an infancy that the backlinks we have shouldnt prevent us from rebranding if thats what we choose to do. I am just trying to get an idea of how moving to a new domain will effect the domain authority if we redirect all the pages? Is the best thing to do simply re-direct, or should we reach out to our most valuable links and let them know the domain/link has changed and hopefully they change their link to us? How much is lost by simply 301 every page? We are getting around 70 organic clicks per day and would rather not start from zero again 🙂
Industry News | | DemiGR0 -
Domain crowding, when exactly?
So I was reading the latest search improvements to Google search on http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2012/05/search-quality-highlights-53-changes.html Good to see they are doing something about "domain diversity" explained as More domain diversity. [launch codename "Horde", project codename "Domain Crowding"] Sometimes search returns too many results from the same domain. This change helps surface content from a more diverse set of domains. OK so it sounds good, right? I was hopeful too but I have been running a few queries myself to see how it helped us. Not even a single change yet. So, I'm wondering how this works. They make a change and it takes some time to see it actually happens? Or is it all done for now and it just fixed a small part of the problem and we have to wait for another change? I'd have been ok if the authority site with 3 links actually were useful links. Unfortunately (not for only competitors, but Google search users too) 2 of the links listed are pages from 2008 and is not really helping anyone.
Industry News | | Gamer070