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
-
Are there any noob sites that might enlighten me to how everyone earns income here?
I know...very odd beginner question so let me elaborate. I have always worked in the corporate grind. I quit and opened up a couple of small (fairly unsuccessful) businesses since 2007. I enjoyed the SEO parts of building the business but just couldn't get them to stick. (local service businesses) I have fallen into some lead gen business with my old customers and I am trying to build that now. How are the majority of the SEO people earning income here? Are most selling their SEO services to other small businesses? Are most earning ad type income here? (how does that work?) I am quickly being forced back into the corporate grind again and would really prefer to learn and taylor my SEO efforts into staying self employed if possible. Would anyone be able to direct me to sites that might explain how entrepreneurs are earning income around here? A little 'Career Counseling' of sorts? (haha) I sincerely would appreciate some enlightenment. 🙂
Industry News | | MontyTheLab2 -
Google Site Warnings via Phone?
I received a voicemail earlier stating that "there are two issues with your company's current Google listing that we need to discuss with the business owner. it is very important that we talk as soon as possible. press 1 to speak with an agent immediately. press 8 if you have already verified your account information or if you are no longer in business and want to be removed from this list. thank you" that's it. no contact number, no reference to what listing or what type of listing (organic, places, etc.) Checked GWT, GA, and the Gmail - there are no warnings or messages in any of those accounts. Has anyone else experienced this?
Industry News | | EmpireToday0 -
Do rankings return to previous rank after a site has been un-indexed?
My client has had a site since 1996 (the first one was a www subdomain, his current site has no www). He came to my company for SEO about a year ago, after having a WordPress site that was accidentally set to not be crawled/indexed by search engines. We set the site to be indexed and added a blog. Since then, he has had slow increase in keyword rankings (on page 3 or most globally searched terms) but is still nowhere near page 1 for most of his keywords. He thinks my company has done nothing, while I see the keyword improvements as a sign of success - slow, gradual - but going in the right direction. I don't know if he was ranking well before he had a site that was not set to be indexed - but if he was on page one, would he eventually return there? Or do we have to build everything over again?
Industry News | | Alex_Ratynski0 -
Two Industry giant has occupied the Google SE First Page.
I have seen just two websites on Google SE first page one with 4 and second one is with 6 internal pages on Coupon related question/niche . What it means Is this a Google Dance or temporary fluctuation. ? Why Google don't consider other sites to show on first page? Many pages from askvila.amazon, yahoo answers and facebook pages are shown on second and third pages.? Is this meant that there are a lack of quality websites/pages for this industry or query? What do you say? Here is the SERPs from Google US.(as on July 09) http://bitly.com/Md8JFW http://bitly.com/LaT9yD Thanks Alex
Industry News | | alexgray0 -
Hello, Actually I have bit of doubt. If I create Google plus business page. Will it helpful or effects for my website ranking?
If I create Google plus business page. Will it helpful or effects for my website ranking?
Industry News | | jaybinary0 -
New Search Engine
Looks, like I signed up months ago to be a BETA tester for a new search engine called Volunia Has anyone else heard about this engine? Just curious! Thx
Industry News | | Ben-HPB0 -
Searching for another Defender of the Front Page!
Greetings Mozfriends and Champions! My company is searching for a performance based SEO that can handle multiple websites and platforms at the same time. Was wondering if any of you fine people would be interested in such a quest. Please reply to the message or you can E-mail me at Jsmith@frontlinemobility.com. Good Luck Champions! Justin Smith
Industry News | | FrontlineMobility0 -
Subdomains seen as one site
Earlier this month Google announced that sub-domains are now
Industry News | | AlanMosley
be treated as one site. At first I thought this was good news as I like to use
sub-domains for separation of categories and the like. But what about links
from one sub-domain to the other, they uised to be external links now they are
internal links. If you don’t have many external links, I would say that the
cross sub-domain links would have been important, if you have a lot of external
links then the flow of link juice would be of more benefit. I think overall its
is a good thing. Does anyone have any opinions about this or know of any writings
on the subject since this announcement? http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/08/reorganizing-internal-vs-external.html0