Hacked and Redirected Domains Dominating Some SERPs

[Kanute78]

Hi there clever boys and girls,
first of all I would like to say that this is my first post here (after following for a long time), keep it up everyone!

I just wonder how long redirected domains (clearly must be hacked) are dominating the serps in general? Would assume that it will be noticed and dealt with quickly by the domains itself?

One example today i found is when searching in google.dk, for several health keywords: several French university sites (all PR 4-7) are appearing in the SERP with Danish meta information, and when clicking on it, it is redirected to a different site, in this case an affiliate site selling all kinds of generic stuff.

Any ideas about the "normal" time circle for these sites to be like this?

[tedster]

Hello Kanute78, and welcome to the forums.

I have rarely seen hacked domains dominate any major keyword SERPs - especially if the the hack creates a 301 redirect. If such a domain does creep into a good SERP, Google usually stops it pretty fast, maybe in a week or two at most.

[JesterMagic]

On a related note I have seen a lot of spam bots using a Referer that is a hacked domain or website that redirects me to some other site.

[crobb305]

there was a recent thread [webmasterworld.com] with similar observations. I also reported (in yet another thread) that my backlink profile contains thousands of links that were created via hacks... I have no control over those, and I believe they have had a negative effect on my rankings (unnatural link warnings + Penguin). My disavow list now contains 8,000+ links of this nature. From time to time, I see those hacked pages showing up on competitive queries. They redirect to spam/lead generation forms, and as Tedster pointed out, they don't seem to stay in the serps for long; however, new ones are always appearing.

[aristotle]

Google usually stops it pretty fast, maybe in a week or two at most.

Google shouldn't allow these pages to ever rank at all, not even for one minute.

[diberry]

Kanute78, the behavior you describe is also identical to a virus or Trojan that was going around a few years ago. It would get onto your PC, and then when you tried to click top search results, it would redirect you to sites selling bogus stuff. Please do some deep virus scanning to make sure you're safe!

(What they discussed in the other thread is a little bit different, and that's why I'm bringing this up. Many people had this bit of malware for quite a while before realizing it, so I just wanted to let you know about it.)

[Kanute78]

Thanks for all the replies,
the sites are still there with the redirect and everything.

Diberry, I did think about that too, but have tried with several different computers, and IPīs, so it is most likely that it is the sites that have some kind of problems.

[ColourOfSpring]

WordPress installations are constantly being hacked - path of least resistance for hackers. Can you believe that the "vanilla" WordPress allows for unlimited password guesses in its admin control panel - ripe for dictionary hacks.

"Oh but there's a WP plugin for that".

Yes....yes, there's a plugin and patch for every WP vulnerability. But that fact is utterly irrelevant when you figure that the majority of installations out there never get updated.

What we have to realise is that there's a large section of the web that hackers have complete control over - literally millions of hacked sites. And they're getting better at hiding the fact that a site has been hacked. A hacked site can still be daily administered by the site owner, who is completely unaware that their site isn't only being "administered" by them....

[diberry]

Diberry, I did think about that too, but have tried with several different computers, and IPīs, so it is most likely that it is the sites that have some kind of problems.

Glad you ruled that out!