Google ban...can't figure out current motive

[dwatrous]

A couple of weeks ago Google dropped my site from their index. I logged in to webmaster tools and found that they saw loads of nasty keywords on my site, like viagra, cialis, etc. I couldn't see any of those keywords, but I went to hostgator where I host and put in a ticket for help.

Hostgator sent me a reply that they had scanned my site and found that it got hacked through the thumb.php script. They cleaned out the infected file and updated the thumb.php script. I also did a search of every file under my user directory and there are no files that have those words in them.

I also purchased Godaddy's website protection where they do a daily scan of my entire site to make sure there are no vulnerabilities and it comes back clean every day.

The first time I submitted to Google for reconsideration they just replied that my site was still in violation. I have used their 'fetch as googlebot' tool on the pages where they say the nasty keywords appear and the pages come back clean.

The domain they banned is: danielwatrous.com

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to ask if there is something obvious (or not so obvious) that I'm missing that is in violation of their quality guidelines. If this is not the right place, where do you think I can post to get a better idea of what Google might still be seeing as a violation?

Thank you!

[senukeservices]

This is very common.
The Thumb cript is a very common script at blogs. ike 6 months ago, hackers broke the code and started hacking all blogs that did not have the thumbs updated. You need to update your thumbs, or remove it or hackers will go on tampering your blog.

[dwatrous]

Thanks @senukeservices. You might have missed that I did update the script and the site is cleaned up.

What I need to know is why Google still thinks I'm in violation.

[thebitbotdotcom]

I would say give it a little time.

Keep in mind that Google updates things..especially webmasters stats and info pretty slowly.

I would say give it a few days and then check again.

Its not easy keeping a detailed track of billions of web domains. Yours is just one.

Also, make sure your site cache is reset if you have a caching plugin.

Mark

[Talen]

Originally Posted by dwatrous

Thanks @senukeservices. You might have missed that I did update the script and the site is cleaned up.

What I need to know is why Google still thinks I'm in violation.

Have hostgator scan your server again. I had a similar problem last summer and initially they said they found the culprit script and cleaned it all up but Google still said I had problems...upon re-checking the site by hostagator they found another script at work.

[Trevor]

Hello Daniel,

I recommend that you have a look at the Unmask Parasites tool. It's a tool that scans your website for potential harmful links to spammy sites and also scans your site to check whether it contains words like "viagra", "casino", etc.

I checked your site and everything seems to be fine now. Try contacting Google once more and explain to them in detail that your site was hacked and that it's in compliance with their TOS now.

[John Moore]

That's no good man, hope you get back in the index soon, damn hackers don't know how they have a direct effect on people's lives......

[dwatrous]

Thanks for all your replies.

I sent Google a second reconsideration request and included details about how their 'fetch as googlebot' and 'preview' features now show that the site is clean. I also mentioned the hostgator ticket and godaddy service that I purchased.

I'm back in the index. I'm not sure which one did the magic, but I am certainly relieved to be showing up in search results again.

[komplex]

Switch to another server? Edit: Nevermind Glad to hear it's working out.

[airpr23]

Just wondering, did they send you a letter telling you everything was ok or did you just see your site was indexed again?

[dagscans]

That means Google has the control of everything. We can do nothing about it.

[dwatrous]

I haven't gotten any communication from them, not yet anyway. I just noticed this morning that my site is back in the index and coming up for all of the same queries that it came up before.