My site was hijacked in Google search results.

[rocker]

When I do a search for my domain name instead of me coming up in the results it is - whois.domain tools.com/example.com - example is my domain.

The results show the title and meta-description from my site but their url and when i click it i go to their site.

Why is this happening and how do I correct it?

[aristotle]

Have you checked to make sure that your page is still in Google's search index?

[SevenCubed]

The title of this post says your site has been hijacked in Google search results but you have given a Domain Tools example. From which site (Google or Domain Tools) are you being lead to a site other than your own?

If it's from Domain Tools then it's probably just some internal quark because they get some of my info wrong too. But if your Google results are being hijacked then I'd start by looking for any unusual redirects that may be in your htaccess file if you are using one.

If your site was compromised they may be redirecting your search engine traffic but not your direct visitors.

[rocker]

Have you checked to make sure that your page is still in Google's search index?

Yes, I checked. Even when I type www.example.com the index page is no longer in Google's search index.

From which site (Google or Domain Tools) are you being lead to a site other than your own?

From Google. When I type my 2 word domain name in Google's search box the 1st result is:

The title of my website.
Followed by my meta description of my website.
But, the url is whois.domain tools.com/example.com
instead of www.example.com

(example.com is my site.)

So when I click it I go to whois.domain tools.com/example.com page.

[SevenCubed]

Ok well that's not really hijacking because Domain Tools profiles most internet sites, no need to be concerned about them. But I guess you still have your real problem of your site not in the index.

[aristotle]

To help analyze the situation, you should also check a couple of other things:

1. What does the site: operator show for your site?

2. Is you site still getting any traffic from Google SERPs?

[rocker]

SevenCubed, thanks for the reply. After a quick look I see that Domain Tools also does it to Yahoo, WebmasterWorld and probably every site.

However, unlike all the other sites my problem is that when you search using my 2 word domain, the Domain Tools page comes up first and my homepage was removed from Google's index.

Perhaps I need to get some quality links. It is a relatively new site, but, this has never happened to me before.

[rocker]

/ 1. What does the site: operator show for your site? /
site: shows most of my pages.

/ 2. Is you site still getting any traffic from Google SERPs? /
Well it is a relatively new site, so no, especially since if a user types my domain name in Google search box the first, and only, result is the Domain Tools webpage.

[aristotle]

You can test to see if any of your pages rank in Google by searching for exact quotes of phrases that appear on the pages. For example, if you have a page that contains the phrase "how to buy antique widgets at auctions", you can search for that exact phrase surrounded by quotation marks. You should select phrases that aren't likely to be found anywhere else on the web. If your page is indexed, it should be near the top of the results.

[outland88]

However, unlike all the other sites my problem is that when you search using my 2 word domain, the Domain Tools page comes up first and my homepage was removed from Google's index.

Perhaps I need to get some quality links. It is a relatively new site, but, this has never happened to me before.

I’ve wondered for over a year when reports of this would start picking up. I don’t like what the mentioned company is doing because it is outright copyright infringement of thousands of index pages. It’s fairly obvious to me what Google’s position on the matter is because thousands of these copied pages have Adsense on them. Even if your site is ranked above the domain tools site they’re still counting on a fair amount of traffic mistakenly thinking it is your site.

The only positives I can tell you is usually within a week your site will return to its usual position and displace the mentioned. Their copy though will remain accessible. This is based upon six reports to me. The second step is an Adsense DMCA. The mentioned is not the only company where you can access the information if they retaliate.

[rocker]

The only positives I can tell you is usually within a week your site will return to its usual position and displace the mentioned. Their copy though will remain accessible. This is based upon six reports to me.

I hope so. I will do a follow up post in a week to let everyone know.

Thanks to aristotle. SevenCubed and outland88 for your input.

[outland88]

It is a relatively new site, but, this has never happened to me before.

Look forward to your response because from what I have seen it affected older sites. In fact the mentioned sometimes carries the sub pages of a site that many don’t see. Since they don’t copy all index pages I’ve often wondered what their criteria is for the copying.

In some cases they are not actually displacing you in the results. What can happen is there is duplicate content on your index page and other pages of your site. Google then, in some cases, down ranks your index page allowing the domain tools site to rise above yours in the rankings. In other words you penalized yourself. This does not always happen but it is something to look at.

[tedster]

How new is "relatively new"?

Perhaps I need to get some quality links

That often fixes a lot of problems!

[rocker]

outland88, thanks for the added info. I do have about 12 sites online, some for 10 years, and this is the first time I seen this.

How new is "relatively new"?

tedster, it has been online for about 3 months.

That often fixes a lot of problems!

I been hanging around WebmasterWorld long enough to realize the importance of quality links, you guys/gals provide a lot of great info :)