Was De-indexed by Google. Now what?

[webw]

So 2 of my sites recently got de-indexed by Google overnight. I am pretty confident it was because of server issues related to attacks on Wordpress of some sort for both of them.

Once I get all those issues fixed, what do you suggest? I don't have them added to WebmasterTools, should I do that first? Or should I just wait a couple of weeks and see if things get re-indexed naturally?

What are the best practices when it comes to getting de-indexed due to server issues?

Any help would be appreciated, as I am completely panicking. Thanks!

[Sand]

Are these new sites?

[webw]

Are these new sites?

No, they are both 3+ years old, with most keyword targets being on page 1. The reason I think it was due to server issues, is that I have been getting down/up notices from the server monitoring service for the last couple of days, and trying to figure out issue with my host.

[RedBar]

What are the best practices when it comes to getting de-indexed due to server issues?

It's not happened to me very much but when it did I just left everything alone and all the sites went back to where they were within 10-14 days if I remember correctly.

I do not use WebmasterTools

[fathom]

If you got deindexed because of phishing or malware when you load the domains to WMT you will have a message there stating that and the reconsideration form link to request reinclusion.

If not then the chance of something else occurred.

[webw]

Figured it out. For some reason, my htaccess was changed to the wrong permissions, which blocked Google bots for the last 5 days. I use W3 total cache, but why the heck did this happen to both my sites, which are on different dedicated servers?

I changed nothing, and neither did my admins. Do you think there would have been some sort of attack or something that changed the permissions of the htaccess through W3 total cache?

[fathom]

No idea but your logs should tell you when the .htaccess last accessed and from what IP.

[lucy24]

your logs should tell you when the .htaccess last accessed and from what IP.

If your htaccess itself was accessed in a way that shows up in logs, you have the worst host in the world and should change yesterday. The server's config file contains a line that says something like

<FilesMatch "^\.ht">
Order Allow,Deny
Deny from all
</FilesMatch>

so even if a malign robot requested your htaccess file, they would never be allowed to see it.

What you can check is the timestamp on your current htaccess file. And, of course, check the file itself. Or just upload a fresh copy. (I tweak mine every few days as IPs-to-block get added, so even if someone sneaked in, their changes wouldn't last long.)

:: detour to raw logs ::

In my case, the number of explicit requests for .htaccess can be counted on the fingers of one hand--and they both originated with humans. (One of them was my son, several years ago; I think he just didn't know you're not allowed to request htaccess through a browser. He, ahem, misspelled it twice too. The other also appears to be human-- well, Canadian-- not sure what that one was about.) I'm surprised there weren't more. They wouldn't get in of course, but you'd expect them to try periodically.

[netmeg]

Ok in another post you mentioned URLs with a wptouch string on the end of them. I used wptouch for a short time when I first went mobile some years ago, and one of the reasons I stopped was that I kept getting corrupted .htaccess files on sites where I used wptouch AND w3 total cache. I was using the recommended settings for each plugin to work together, but it still kept happening. Both plugin developers said it wasn't their software; all I know is when I stopped using wptouch and went to full responsive, the problem went away. Your mileage may vary.

[fathom]

And I'll correct myself... I wasn't commenting on access to public pages and those logs but server change logs associated with account administration that defines how & when a server/account was upgraded or updated.

However I was also corrected that such customization are not common with currently offered commercial software like cPanel.

[lucy24]

There's no substitute for looking directly at your raw logs, and no substitute for FTP-ing directly into your site files to look at timestamps with your own eyeballs.

And that's speaking as someone who screams and runs when someone utters the phrase "command line" ;)

[samwest]

just go to WMT, resubmit your site map. Do a fetch as googebot and submit with "this page and all connected pages" option. ...then punt and wait for the return.