Google Explains Hacked Site Exclusion & Reinclusion Process

Dec 4, 2006 at 8:09am ET by Barry Schwartz

Matt Cutts of Google wrote an entry named How Google handles hacked sites. In that post he details on specific example of a site that was hacked, spam was placed on the site, the site was dropped from the Google index, and the site owner was upset and the story made it to Slashdot. Due to that, Matt felt it appropriate to explain how Google typically handles these types of issues, using that site as an example. You can see how the site was hacked, the type of spam placed on the site, the date Google dropped the site from the index, the dates Google tried to notify the site owner via Webmaster Central and via email and the approval of the reinclusion request. Matt’s post is well worth a read.

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

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4 COMMENTS ON Google Explains Hacked Site Exclusion & Reinclusion Process

Grzegorz, December 4th, 2006 at 9:52 am ET:

Hi!

It’s not about the topic…
I have to say that Barry is doing a great job here trying to keep SEL up to date.
I suppose that Danny and rest of the team are working on new design right now… or are they already gone to SES Chicago?
Matt will not be there.
Waiting for Dec.11.

rustybrick, December 4th, 2006 at 9:57 am ET:

We are actually all at SES Chicago right now. Hence, the slower coverage of search topics. I will have a ton of headlines go up tonight…

JasonD, December 4th, 2006 at 11:41 am ET:

Excellent commentary by Matt on how hacking and spamming can cross over and affect the SERPs but does it give an answer to how to stop abuse of other peoples’ sites when it is (indirectly) the algorithms in place that may lead people to undertake social and sometimes criminal abuse of other peoples’ sites ?

இ Search Engines WEB, December 5th, 2006 at 5:55 am ET:

What is unforgivable is the policy or banning the ENTIRE site.

It is bad enough that a hacked Web site owner may have lost income and Public Relations karma by those who do not know what happened.

But, must Google make matters worst by banning ALL the OTHER UnHACKED PAGES. At least there stands a possibility that potential customers could enter the site via those pages from Search Engines.

Many Web site owners do not daily check their homepages or other pages throughout their sites. So they could be completely unaware of what has happened. And even if Google sends them an email, an unsavy, non-geek WEb site owner may just disregard it as a sales pitch or junk mail without even reading it.

There was also concerns expressed in the topic about Doorway pages causing banning.

Under some circumstances, Doorway pages may be a productive SEO strategy, and quite necessary and practical if done in a limited way.

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