Comments on: How Google handles hacked sites

By: Maureen Moss

Maureen Moss — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 16:04:36 +0000

I’ve just tried to access ’10 Steps to marketing your business on Facebook’ in Google and get a page proudly declaring that the page has been hacked by someone with the highly imaginative name of Hacker. Does that mean I can’t access that page again?

By: Miranda Frigon

Miranda Frigon — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 04:20:54 +0000

My personal website has been hacked and when you type in my web address a big red sign pops up that says “Visiting this site may harm your computer, this site contains malware. . . etc. ” Basically no one can access my site as it clearly has been hacked. This is a site I generate work from and it’s been out of commission for a few months now and I can’t seem to figure out how to get it fixed! Have called my hosting company, my web designer etc. Please help???!!!

Miranda

By: David Thomas Marquardt

David Thomas Marquardt — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:42:21 +0000

Thanks Matt!

By: mikwillson

mikwillson — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 06:12:24 +0000

That is to be expected in a long-term, high-risk project like ours. So, we turned to the blogging community for help – and got it! We have published our problems, and the community responded with results!

By: emanuel

emanuel — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 16:38:37 +0000

I know this is years later, but i was just reading this post, and was wondering how have these issues changed since then. is it easier for you now to contact owners, or, what is the current format and language of spam emails?

also, i was curious if you are able to tell us a little about how you handled the gawker hack from google’s end. being that it is a very major site, do you delist it? because even though it was hacked, users still wanted to find it. etc.

By: Claudio

Claudio — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:40:34 +0000

Google manipulates public opinion in Brazil

In 2010 there will be an election in Brazil and one of the candidates, the governor of Sao Paulo, Jose Serra of the PSDB – Conservative Party, a rival of President Lula – has always been protected by the media (TV’s, newspapers and magazines in Brazil are in the hands of conservatives).

On 13/11/2009 there was a serious accident in one of the works of the governor, called Rodoanel (like “Ring Road”). There are many allegations of corruption in this work.

I saw on a site that Serra had ordered to Google to not publish the accident in the Rodoanel. At first, I thought that’s a joke. I like Google and did not believe there was this kind of manipulation. I always knew of the manipulation in newspapers and magazines, but in Google? I could not believe it…

Well, try to find a picture of the Rodoanel accident there. I tried but I could not find anything. Not a single image. The complaint is on this site (portuguese): http://cloacanews.blogspot.com/2009/11/serra-mandou-google-obedeceu-sistema-de.html

This is not scary?
(sorry my poor english)

By: Itsme

Itsme — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:14:49 +0000

Ruth Wells

I think you could overcome your problem with a properly constructed robots.txt, first with allows for all pages that are part of your site, then a disallow for the entire site.

By: Mike Abundo

Mike Abundo — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:58:50 +0000

My site just got hit by a new WordPress hack. The hacker left hidden text that got my personal blog deindexed. I've already cleaned the hidden text out, and applied for reinclusion.I'd advise Matt and all other WordPress site owners to check for infection. This hack looks nasty.

By: Ruth Wells

Ruth Wells — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:19:58 +0000

I will probably be out of business by the time you read this, but I might as well write this because it may help someone else. I love Google– at least until this week. My site was hacked. We removed offending script that added 100 pages of spam to our site for helping teachers work with traumatized children. Even AFTER the intrusion was repaired, hacker keeps posting 100 pages PER DAY of porn, drugs and cell phone links that appear to be part of my site for helping children who struggle. I have requested reinclusion, updated my robots.txt file, filed a complaint with ic3.gov, and done everything people say to do. My site still cannot be found for any keyword that it normally could be found for. Traffic is off by 99% and I will be gone within weeks. There is no way to reach a live person at Google. Spiders don’t understand hacks. They just add more of the junk pages. If you research this issue, hacked sites are a huge problem yet there is no ombudsman at Google to turn to. I know Google means well but I was victimized by the hacker then by Google. I think Google needs a human ombudsman available only to webmasters who have been hacked AND file an FBI ic3.gov report. The penalities for filing a false report are substantial. I think few people would do do that. Google needs some human mechanism to stop hackers from being able to destroy legitimate sites. Now, all one can do is sit back and wait and wait and hope to be crawled soon and that the spider will eventually make all the right interpretations and corrections. Until then, the hacker wins. Google, please consider offering a human resource when a crime has occured. Until then, the hacker has 900 pages on my site, I have only a 100 . That is why I may soon be gone.

By: Ken Fallaw

Ken Fallaw — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:26:00 +0000

Hi Matt:

Your article was good reading. On Monday of this week Sep 17, 2007, I received a message from Google telling me that some pages(my Index page) from my site had been removed for 30 days, due to hidden data on the page.

They sent us the hidden data.

We did find that there was hidden data on the page. The hidden data, which we had no idea was there, was a duplication of our sites description. The only thing we can surmise is that during the original construction of our site 7 years ago, the web page designer copied, or started a description on the web page which was later revised.

I am not a web designer, but I have assumed the position of a webmaster on my site. After our site was designed, I took control of the site, and edit the site with Front Page. I do not use code. Period.

Because I do not use code, I cannot see the code on the site. Using Front Page, I do not need code. I have no idea if something else is on my site because I never look at the code. It is a foreign language to me.

I have taken the necessary steps for to have the pages reincluded.

However, I do have some serious issues with the manner in which Google handled this, and the consequences it has had on my small business.

It seems strange, that Google does not send out some sort of warning letting someone know that their site is not in compliance with Googles Policies, and allow them time to correct them.

To just remove pages from your search engine has great consequences on a small business. Our internet sales dropped over 50% over the weekend, after our pages were removed from the search engine.

In the seven years we have been on the web, we have gained good positons for our products, now our products are not listed at all, and we have no idea what kind of placement we will get when we are reinstated.

Our site does not even show up on google search. It’s like we have disappeared off the face of the earth.

Based on the email I received, we will be removed for 30 days. This will have a terrible effect on our business, in the busiest part of our season.

When looking at the information that was hidden, the employee at Google should have been able to determine that this was not an intentional act. He could readily see that it was a duplication of the pages description.

We had no idea it was there, but we are paying a huge price for a small error.

Can you give me any suggestions. We have found that we cannot contact Google.

Ken Fallaw