Google search results hijacked

8 years ago

Well, it's certainly something that can happen. It should not, but Google might not just see that redirect taking place. Google's spam controls are not perfect, and I'd guess these hackers have done a good job on fooling Google.

Here's a few report forms that you can fill:
https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_badware/
https://www.stopbadware.org/

Thanks
1 reply

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Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

What's your excuse?

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jsompinm

8 years ago

Yeah, very true that anything can happen. Just wondering if any of you have been experiencing something similar. The webspam etc forms have been submitted, but they are typically just as efficient as shouting to birds

We just heard yesterday that our competitor had lost 60% of their traffic because of this.

Originally Posted by nettiapina

Well, it's certainly something that can happen. It should not, but Google might not just see that redirect taking place. Google's spam controls are not perfect, and I'd guess these hackers have done a good job on fooling Google.

Thanks
1 reply

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nettiapina

8 years ago

Originally Posted by jsompinm

Yeah, very true that anything can happen. Just wondering if any of you have been experiencing something similar.

I've seen a few of these over the years, but not in the past few months. Can't really remember the details as my sites weren't affected, but the effect was similar to this. Sites knocked out by something that should not really be there. The ones I watched more closely took some time to get fixed.

Contacting the owner of the site is probably the most effective path to take. Unfortunately all the methods are about as effective as "old man yelling at birds".

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

What's your excuse?

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jsompinm

8 years ago

Originally Posted by nettiapina

Contacting the owner of the site is probably the most effective path to take. Unfortunately all the methods are about as effective as "old man yelling at birds".

Sigh. Yeah, it's been about a week and initially we saw some pages knocked out of the index, but the next day there was another site basically doing the same thing. I'm guessing the hackers would have a long list of hacked sites that they can just drop there on a moments notice.

Thanks

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irawr

Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by jsompinm

Hi Guys

This is my first post here, but I've been following the conversions every now and then.

We noticed a very disturbing developing regarding search rankings very recently (starting mid November). Basically we are seeing hacked sites getting into the Google index and overriding our organic positions. This is happening across a variety of high volume keywords and we are seeing other sites being targeted as well.

I've written this longer post over at medium.com with some screenshots and more detailed analysis: https://medium.com/@Juha.Sompinmaeki...5fe#.203ylt41v

Let me know if you are experiencing something like this currently. From what we have seen, this is a very fast moving situation and changes every hour.

Juha

Let it be known, in 2015 Full Black Hat SEO was born.

This is a situation where I would use a telephone to solve the problem. I would get a phone number for the site that is hacked and let them know about it. I'm 100% certain they would love to resolve the issue.

Thanks
1 reply

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jsompinm

8 years ago

Originally Posted by irawr

This is a situation where I would use a telephone to solve the problem. I would get a phone number for the site that is hacked and let them know about it.

Yeah, already in the works. Sites can be taken down, the problem is Google and how they suddenly are so blind for these things. Another interesting question is how they can get the bogus pages rank so high and so fast.

Thanks
1 reply

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irawr

Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by jsompinm

Yeah, already in the works. Sites can be taken down, the problem is Google and how they suddenly are so blind for these things. Another interesting question is how they can get the bogus pages rank so high and so fast.

Oh... I'm sure they're cloaking the root index page and hijacking the full power of all the links to the site. Which means the rest of their site likely dives in the SERPs. Check the cached version of the root index page in google.

Yep

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...&ct=clnk&gl=us

Thanks
1 reply

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jsompinm 8 years ago

Originally Posted by irawr

Yep

Home

Yeah, we noticed this while ago already.

Here's a few more that are part of the same thing.

phenixa.com
rowingbike.com
bebesdress.com
freeonlinegames.top

Very frustrating though, these things are so 2010 already.
- Thanks
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sonjay

8 years ago

This is disturbing.. Is this in Google Singapore (.sg) only ..?

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1 reply

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jsompinm

8 years ago

Originally Posted by sonjay

This is disturbing.. Is this in Google Singapore (.sg) only ..?

From our research, this is affecting our site worldwide with the biggest hit happening in India. That's just because of the search volume is so high there. We have also noticed already that couple of hacked sites got removed from the index, but new sites just came and took over doing the same thing.

Thanks
1 reply

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paulgl

8 years ago

Originally Posted by jsompinm

From our research, this is affecting our site worldwide with the biggest hit happening in India. That's just because of the search volume is so high there. We have also noticed already that couple of hacked sites got removed from the index, but new sites just came and took over doing the same thing.

Well now, we have the real answer. I was wondering....given the responses above.
They all sounded quite strange....devoid of some reality.

The reality is India. It is the most hackey-sacked place on the planet.

Why does this surprise anyone, now that we know it's India?

This has zip to do with google, as always. It's India.

If I lived in Robert Taylor Chicago, I would not wonder why the elevator keeps breaking down.

Paul

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jsompinm 8 years ago

Originally Posted by paulgl

Well now, we have the real answer. The reality is India. It is the most hackey-sacked place on the planet.

India just because of the volume, but US is hit hard as well. Of course US cannot match the session volume, but the hit is actually bigger in terms of revenue. At the same time other search engines have actually gone up, Yandex, Yahoo et al.

Anyway, Google removed the scam sites from the index just a day ago and now we are keeping an eye on how the traffic should return to normal.
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Synnuh

8 years ago

SAPE making a big impact. That's going to be fun to watch G try to fix lol

This is why you stay up to date and don't leave plugins and themes on your host that you aren't actively using (and keeping updated).

Thanks
1 reply

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jsompinm 8 years ago

Originally Posted by Synnuh

SAPE making a big impact. That's going to be fun to watch G try to fix lol

Not that fun though to watch when you are at the receiving end of all this. I still don't get it. Whether its SAPE or something else, shouldn't G be smarter than this.
- Thanks
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yukon

Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by jsompinm

Hi Guys

This is my first post here, but I've been following the conversions every now and then.

We noticed a very disturbing developing regarding search rankings very recently (starting mid November). Basically we are seeing hacked sites getting into the Google index and overriding our organic positions. This is happening across a variety of high volume keywords and we are seeing other sites being targeted as well.

I've written this longer post over at medium.com with some screenshots and more detailed analysis:

Let me know if you are experiencing something like this currently. From what we have seen, this is a very fast moving situation and changes every hour.

Juha

Duh, like hacked sites started all of a sudden.

Welcome to the internet circa. 1995.

Thanks
1 reply

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jsompinm

8 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

Duh, like hacked sites started all of a sudden.

Nobody suggested this is happening all of a sudden. The issue is about Google falling for an old trick (SAPE etc).

Thanks
1 reply

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yukon

Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by jsompinm

Nobody suggested this is happening all of a sudden. The issue is about Google falling for an old trick (SAPE etc).

So why is an old trick a big deal today? Why today instead of 5 or 10 years ago?

Thanks
1 reply

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jsompinm

8 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

So why is an old trick a big deal today? Why today instead of 5 or 10 years ago?

Why the hostile attitude? Just having a conversation here and asking if people are experiencing similar activity starting this December.

Thanks
1 reply

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yukon

Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by jsompinm

Why the hostile attitude? Just having a conversation here and asking if people are experiencing similar activity starting this December.

No hostility.

From what I've read your only complaining because competition bumped you down the SERPs. Yea, even hacked pages are competition.

Thanks
1 reply

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jsompinm

8 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

From what I've read your only complaining because competition bumped you down the SERPs. Yea, even hacked pages are competition.

Well, thats a matter of perspective really. Yeah, this is very troubling as we are not doing any blackhat SEO stuff. So just wondering if the new/old Google exploitation is related to the recent phantom update.

Thanks
1 reply

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yukon

Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by jsompinm

Well, thats a matter of perspective really. Yeah, this is very troubling as we are not doing any blackhat SEO stuff. So just wondering if the new/old Google exploitation is related to the recent phantom update.

Well now you're just grasping straws (phantom update).

Ranked spam is not new & has nothing to do with any Google algo update.

Perspective? Please, you're whining because you've been outranked.

We noticed a very disturbing developing regarding search rankings very recently (starting mid November). Basically we are seeing hacked sites getting into the Google index and overriding our organic positions.

You have two possible (not guaranteed) choices. Outrank the spam sites or report the spam sites & hope Google doesn't snoop around your own site. Just know If they're decent traffic niche/keywords & the spammers already got a taste, they'll most likely be back with fresh domains at full throttle.

Thanks
1 reply

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jsompinm 8 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

Well now you're just grasping straws (phantom update).
Perspective? Please, you're whining because you've been outranked.

Well, the people at Searchmetrics seem to think the update is very real Phantom Update III: What Google

This is just a matter of time when things get fixed, we have a very long history ranked highly on search engines for competitive keywords, so its easy to spot such changes. We have no issue Google coming over for a visit
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Synnuh

8 years ago

You've got to be the creative one.

Stay on top of reporting the spam in your SERPs, but you won't get rid of the guy behind it. If they're turning a profit they'll be back.

Sucks you're on the receiving end, but it's why some niches are called "competitive". Either embrace it, or pivot and figure out a new strategy. It is what it is.

Thanks
1 reply

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jsompinm

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Synnuh

Sucks you're on the receiving end, but it's why some niches are called "competitive". Either embrace it, or pivot and figure out a new strategy. It is what it is.

It seems that Google got their act together after a week of serving nonsense to users. Sure, the niche is competitive, but at the same time it's been rather stable for years and I don't see a reason why it would change, especially if the focus is more on the whole search experience.

Thanks

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