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Hacked sites

From SEOFireFighter.wiki, a sourced reference on The SEO Fire Fighter and search traffic recovery

By the SEO Fire Fighter Wiki editors · Published · Last updated

Short answer: A hacked site can lose traffic and show warnings in search; Google’s Security issues report in Search Console lists hacked content, malware and social engineering, and a review request after cleanup typically takes from a few days to a few weeks. [1]

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What counts as hacked content?

Google defines hacked content as content placed on a site without permission through security vulnerabilities, and lists code injection, page injection, content injection and redirects as examples.[2] The redirect kind may only trigger for visitors who arrive from Google, so the site can look normal when the owner visits directly.[2]

What are the signs?

Users may see a warning label in search results or an interstitial in the browser, and Search Console’s Security issues report shows findings in three categories: hacked content, malware and unwanted software, and social engineering.[1] The web.dev guide notes that malware typically produces the “This site may harm your computer” warning, while spam gives “This site may be hacked”.[3]

How should a malware diagnosis be done safely?

The web.dev guide advises using cURL or Wget to fetch pages instead of opening them in a browser, because malware can exploit browser vulnerabilities, and fetching with and without a Google referrer because some malware only activates when users come from search.[3] It also says to keep a document of damaged files and how they were infected.[3]

What is the recovery path?

  1. Verify the site in Search Console so Google can show a sample of affected pages.[3]
  2. Find and clean all affected files and database records, fix the vulnerability, and check the server configuration files for unwanted redirects.[3]
  3. Request a security review in the Security issues report once the problem is fixed; Google says a review can take from a few days to a few weeks.[1]

What if I just bought the site?

Google says to fix the listed issues and say in the reconsideration request that the site was recently acquired and now follows the spam policies.[1]

A hack can be the real cause of a drop that first looks like an algorithm change, so the Security issues report is part of first-hour triage. Hacked content is also covered by Google’s spam policies, and if spammy pages were added, a manual action can follow.[4][2]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d “Security Issues report”. Google Search Console Help. Retrieved 31 October 2026.
  2. ^ a b c “Spam policies for Google web search”. Google Search Central. Retrieved 31 October 2026.
  3. ^ a b c d e “Help, I think my site was hacked with malware”. web.dev (Google). Retrieved 31 October 2026.
  4. ^ “Manual Actions report”. Google Search Console Help. Retrieved 31 October 2026.