Spamming and Wordpress
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Hi,
I have a Wordpress site for which I was ranking #1 for my main key phrase. Then I noticed that my site had plummeted in ranking. Investigating I found the cause to be a hacking issue where my code has lots of content for and backlinks to Viagra sites! How do I best work on retrieving my ranking and making sure that the site in question gets penalized?
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Is your site listed in google wmt? if so is there any messages.
Ask for re-consideration and explain what happened
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Most usually, your rankings will come back once you clean your site up. I'd recommend letting go of thoughts regarding penalties to site in question. There's really nothing that the ordinary mortal can do that will make that happen and if there was something that could be done, they'd be up and running the next hour with another site (which probably already is up and running.)
The big take away is: keep your wordpress up to date, delete your admin account, and set up an account with another username with a strong password.
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hi, thanks for the advice!
I will check Webmaster tools, and send a description of the issue. I´m sure you´re right regarding the penalty issue, I guess I just have to tighten security...
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Hey Bo, just thought I'd chime in here. I had a client's site get some kind of nasty code injection - pharma stuff like you're talking about. Happened a month or so ago. He was #1 for his keyphrase also, but as soon as the site was compromised, he dropped to page 4-5. Soon as I re-did the site and got it live his rankings came back.
Sooo...bad news and good news. I highly doubt your site is actually de-indexed (good news). The bad news is the amount of work you'll have to do. I completely wiped the root folder, deleted the DB, and re-built the wordpress site from scratch on a different theme/framework.
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Hi,
thanks for sharing! I found the code in the Header and deleted everything, so hopefully that should take care of the "clean-up" process, so I can start on the "small matter" of regaining my ranking. I'm in 50th at the moment, so at least I'm indexed!
cheers
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Just a heads-up Bo - and really sorry to be a bearer of bad news, but fixing a WordPress hack like you're describing is almost never as easy as just deleting the code you see in headers. Like on virus-infected desktop computers, the malware often hides an additional payload of crapware that is capable of regenerating the spam links after a designated time period.
There are a number of different WordPress scanning services like http://sucuri.net/, as well as security-scanning plugins available. Be sure to use a couple of them (no one tool catches everything) to make sure you site is actually clean. In addition, monitor it carefully and repeatedly for the next several weeks to make sure the malware doesn't surreptitiously re-assert itself.
Lastly, make certain you have changed all ftp passwords for your site's server and that you are using strong, complex passwords. This is an easy vector of attack that many webmasters forget to secure. If possible, you should be using sFTP (secure ftp) for any work on your site as it encrypts ftp passwords where regular ftp sends them in the clear and so is extremely easy to hack.
Paul
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A good idea would be to change your passwords on a monthly basis and maybe ask your hosting company to see if there is anything they can do to stop your site from being hacked. Also ask them if they have any data on when your site was hacked.
A good hosting company will help you keep your site secure
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This plugin is really helpful for protecting your site:
Once you clean up, it should gain rankings back.
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thanks, Paul.
I am testing the "Wordfence" plug-in, and I was able to identify (and delete) a malware file. I should probably look for a more secure host as well.
Cheers
Bo
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