2

My website is the first result for the search term "word search solver" in Google. Recently, I noticed a huge drop in traffic (almost all my traffic comes from Google), so I did a quick search. What I found was that while Google still displays my website as the first result, a redirect has been added and it now points to a spam site (see https://www.google.com/search?q=word+search+solver). The description remains the same ("To solve the word search..."), and the cached version brings up the correct version of the site.

The confounding thing is, the site can still be accessed just fine by visiting directly (https://wordsearch.lukasjoswiak.com), or by being referred by another site. The only thing that seems to have changed is the Google link. When I do a "site:" search, there are no problems (https://www.google.com/#q=site:wordsearch.lukasjoswiak.com).

I have found similar questions (Site is being redirected to Viagra store; all the usual suspects turn up nothing), but I can't seem to find the problem if it exists on my server. There are no redirects in .htaccess, no PHP or JavaScript redirects that I can find. Maybe it is an Apache backdoor?

Additionally, I run a number of other sites off the same server (any on https://lukasjoswiak.com) and a Google search for any of them does not have this problem. Any ideas?

Server details: DigitalOcean VPS running Ubuntu 14.04.

UPDATE: Turns out it was a Google bug. More details here: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/webmasters/SUQ9xY0c9Ks

Community
  • 1
Lukas
  • 121
  • 4
  • 2
    Hold on: when I run a google search for `word search solvers` there is a spam site at the top of the results: `personaltouchtherapies` is that what you are seeing? It's not your site at all. If I search for `word search solvers lukasjoswiak` their site is #1 and you are #2 - – schroeder Apr 19 '16 at 19:26
  • 1
    Yes, that's the site that has allegedly hijacked his spot. View the cached page, you'll see it's his site. – WorseDoughnut Apr 19 '16 at 19:27
  • Yes, that is the spam link. It should point to http://wordsearch.lukasjoswiak.com, but it has somehow been redirected to the current spam site. – Lukas Apr 19 '16 at 19:28
  • 2
    This is not a server problem! This is a Google SEO issue on their end. There appears to be nothing for Lukas to do on his end. The spam site isn't hijacking or mimicing Lukas's site at all from my searches – schroeder Apr 19 '16 at 19:29
  • That makes me feel better, as it means my server has probably not been hacked. However, how was the redirect put in place? In Google Webmaster tools, when I ask Google to crawl the page, Google says its status is redirected. How would that happen? – Lukas Apr 19 '16 at 19:31
  • 1
    @Lukas I'm not seeing evidence of a redirect - it's a straight-up link to their site – schroeder Apr 19 '16 at 19:31
  • 2
    This is what I get: http://imgur.com/LUehlJB to me, they just copied your metadata in order to hijack the SEO – schroeder Apr 19 '16 at 19:34
  • 1
    On my end, I don't see his page below the now-spam one: https://i.imgur.com/WCV7UlU.png – WorseDoughnut Apr 19 '16 at 19:37
  • Ok, so does that mean Google saw two results that looked the same and got rid of one of them? Because my site has been the top result for a year, and now it is gone. Although your explanation does make sense and I it seems to be what happened. How do I report this to Google/get this fixed? – Lukas Apr 19 '16 at 19:37
  • 1
    @WorseDoughnut I specifically searched for his domain along with the search terms – schroeder Apr 19 '16 at 19:43
  • 2
    @Lukas there should be some kind of "abuse" contact email. Not sure how else to help. I'll close this question as "off-topic" as it isn't a security issue, but a Google SEO one. – schroeder Apr 19 '16 at 19:44
  • 1
    FYI based on my phone call, the number appears to be a legitimate business. I imagine the owners of the domain are unaware it's serving ad links. That, or the site is completely spam and they've used a random business' info as cover. – WorseDoughnut Apr 19 '16 at 19:50
  • 1
    Thanks. For anyone curious, I reported the site as "webspam". https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93713?hl=en Hopefully Google takes action. – Lukas Apr 19 '16 at 19:52

0 Answers0