Update: Brian, from the Search Quality Team, just gave me a bit more info.
You probably have a compromised .htacess file, and maybe a .php script dropped in your cgi-bin/ directory, based on cases I’ve seen in the past. I can’t be sure without access. These hacking spammers tend to change and adapt.
On our end, we see pay-per-click pages when we visit the pages from Google results. One of this spammer’s goals is to leech off your good reputation in our index to send users to pay-per-click programs, which is a clear violation of our Quality Guidelines.
Looks like when my site was hacked last year, some annoying links were added to my site without my knowledge. Take a look at what happens when you do the “site:sleepyblogger.com” search on Google:
Now I have to find out how to dig through my server and find any pages like that. That should be fun 😉 Of course, I also have to find out if they’ve done it on any other domains I hold, since I also don’t want them being banned either.
So, no conspiracy, just a clever, malicious hack that will cause me hours of work…
Brian White from Google was kind enough to send me an email giving me a heads up as to what the problem was, so, “Many Thanks!” to Brian.
My guess is that spammy pages were added by a malicious third party. You may want to contact your ISP’s tech support if this is the case.
The reality is that such pages can have a negative effect on our users, so in these cases we typically prioritize a removal from our index first. We do want your site in our index 🙂
As part of the cleanup process, you should look to upgrade your WordPress installation, either to the newest in the 2.0.x series or to 2.2
The .htaccess I have published should help, and fix other problems you have with duplicate URLs.
I know on my server, because I am not using any cgi, the cgi folder is empty.
Thanks Andy. I didn’t even think of that, but it makes alot of sense.
At least you are one step forward, you know what’s wrong. I wish you luck.
Great article… any view into the “secret sauce” which makes up Google’s decision making process is very welcome! This gives great insight and warning of what to watch out for.
I’m glad how this affair developed. Not only for you, but for the whole community. You are so lucky that someone from Google answered to you!
I’m such a lamer regarding security – every time a site gets hacked I instantly back up my blog, read half a dozen posts regarding security and forget all about the next day. If reading alone would help!
tag you’re it.
Wow that sux. Google is getting way to high and mighty.
“getting too high and mighty”
…
Where have you been? They have been acting this way for years now *grins*
Robyn:
Thanks for your help today. I appreciate your fairness and your understanding.
I’m sorry your site got hacked. That stinks!
You’ll never guess what I posted about at http://www.BlueSkyBrothers.com tonight? LOL
Cya!
http://www.JerryWFranklin.com
http://www.MarketingSoftwareTools.com
Robyn,
Sorry to hear about your hackitude.
For further clarification, are the SPAMmy pages entries into your databased like WordPress pages or did they create straight HTML files?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Dan
I’ve read from other people that Google has been of great help. It is good to know a company so large can still be accessible.
Daniel,
Looks like there are not in my WP database, but added on to my domain. Not really sure, as I am not the one cleaning it up, but I think that is the answer. I’ll update it when it’s all cleaned up to reflect that info.
Well Robyn. Thanks for sharing. Very Informative
Sorry for the hacking event, at least you have the info in time before anything worst happen to your site.
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