Two weeks ago someone added a new folder to my website. The content is unrelated to my site and is pure spam about prescription drugs, etc. There were no links to this new material from the rest of my site, but there were external links from other sites. When these new pages are called in a browser, they redirect to an online pharmacy.
Google picked up these new pages in its index (it was by looking at which pages are indexed that I found out about this hack.)
Now I am worried that my site will be identified as spam. I immediately deleted the files when I found them (today). Is there any way I can prevent my site from being punished?
Perhaps you have taken some corrective measures immediately, prior to the next robo visit. Else, these redirection things are not harmless, but they can be mended if they disappear until the next googlebot visit. But important even more, seek another webhost for your site
> Two weeks ago someone added a new folder to my website. The content > is unrelated to my site and is pure spam about prescription drugs, > etc. There were no links to this new material from the rest of my > site, but there were external links from other sites. When these new > pages are called in a browser, they redirect to an online pharmacy.
> Google picked up these new pages in its index (it was by looking at > which pages are indexed that I found out about this hack.)
> Now I am worried that my site will be identified as spam. I > immediately deleted the files when I found them (today). Is there any > way I can prevent my site from being punished?
> Now I am worried that my site will be identified as spam. I > immediately deleted the files when I found them (today). Is there any > way I can prevent my site from being punished?
You can sign up for a Google Webmaster account and file a re-inclusion request which explains what happens... If you haven't been excluded from the index and nothing seems to have changed for the moment... then there is also the option to request removal of those pages from the Google index from with the webmaster account as well...
I'm sorry to hear about your site--being hacked is not fun, as many people here can tell you. However, your instinct to delete that hacked directory was right on, and with it gone, you should be through the thick of your problems.
As Lushi also noted, (thanks, Lushi!) you have done the right thing by deleting those spammy pages before the Googlebot makes its next visit. If your server returns a 404 'Not Found' (or a 410 'Gone') for those URLs, Google will know the pages no longer exist and should stop serving them as search results. We do our best to look out for innocent webmasters--if you were already violated by a hacker, we don't want to cause you more problems by harming your whole site's rankings. However, there are still two things you may want to consider:
First, as MrGamma kindly noted, if you have reason to believe your site as a whole has been affected by a penalty because of the hacker, you will want to file a reconsideration request from Google Webmaster Central with a detailed explanation of your situation. This will help us resolve your situation as quickly as possible. You can find a Help Center article about reconsideration requests here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35843
Second, you should contact your hosting provider or IT professional to make sure that you are running the most up to date versions of any control panels, content management systems, blogging platforms, etc. Cleaning up the spam is a good short-term solution, but by making sure you keep your software up to date, you can minimize your vulnerability in the future.
> > Now I am worried that my site will be identified as spam. I > > immediately deleted the files when I found them (today). Is there any > > way I can prevent my site from being punished?
> You can sign up for a Google Webmaster account and file a re-inclusion > request which explains what happens... If you haven't been excluded > from the index and nothing seems to have changed for the moment... > then there is also the option to request removal of those pages from > the Google index from with the webmaster account as well...
> I'm sorry to hear about your site--being hacked is not fun, as many > people here can tell you. However, your instinct to delete that > hacked directory was right on, and with it gone, you should be through > the thick of your problems.
> As Lushi also noted, (thanks, Lushi!) you have done the right thing by > deleting those spammy pages before the Googlebot makes its next > visit. If your server returns a 404 'Not Found' (or a 410 'Gone') for > those URLs, Google will know the pages no longer exist and should stop > serving them as search results. We do our best to look out for > innocent webmasters--if you were already violated by a hacker, we > don't want to cause you more problems by harming your whole site's > rankings. However, there are still two things you may want to > consider:
> First, as MrGamma kindly noted, if you have reason to believe your > site as a whole has been affected by a penalty because of the hacker, > you will want to file a reconsideration request from Google Webmaster > Central with a detailed explanation of your situation. This will help > us resolve your situation as quickly as possible. You can find a Help > Center article about reconsideration requests here:http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35843
> Second, you should contact your hosting provider or IT professional to > make sure that you are running the most up to date versions of any > control panels, content management systems, blogging platforms, etc. > Cleaning up the spam is a good short-term solution, but by making sure > you keep your software up to date, you can minimize your vulnerability > in the future.
> I hope this was helpful! > -Bergy
> On Nov 6, 2:01 pm, MrGamma wrote:
> > > Now I am worried that my site will be identified as spam. I > > > immediately deleted the files when I found them (today). Is there any > > > way I can prevent my site from being punished?
> > You can sign up for a Google Webmaster account and file a re-inclusion > > request which explains what happens... If you haven't been excluded > > from the index and nothing seems to have changed for the moment... > > then there is also the option to request removal of those pages from > > the Google index from with the webmaster account as well...
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