Google blacklists websites that have any suspicious content in them. The search engine is said to blacklist 10,000 websites every single day. When a website is blacklisted, users are warned against visiting the website. A blacklisted website may lose up to 95% of the regular traffic it receives. Obviously, this is not desirable.
When someone tries to access a blacklisted website, a flashy warning pops up. This warning is usually something on the lines of “deceptive site ahead” or “the site ahead contains malware”. This post discusses the various Google warning messages, quick fixes, and preventive measures.
Google Warning Messages
Google blacklists websites when they have malicious or phishing content. They are also on the radar for any black hat SEO techniques. Sometimes, a website owner might not identify that they’ve been hacked until Google blacklists them. To remove a website from Google blacklist, one needs to clean the website of malware. However, before doing that it is crucial to understand the warning given by the search engine.
Some of the Google warning messages are:
1. This site may harm your computer
This warning pops up when Google identifies that the website can install harmful programs to the visitor’s device. These malicious programs can cause permanent damage to the device. Moreover, it can also steal valuable data from the device like credit card credentials and passwords.
2. Deceptive site ahead
“Deceptive site ahead” warning is an indication that the website is a phishing site. Phishing websites trick users into giving up sensitive and valuable information by the means of trickery and deceit. Phishing sites are usually replicas of popular websites. However, your website can be flagged as a deceptive site if it hosts other phishing sites or if it contains malware. This means that your website is linking to other suspicious websites.
3. This site may be hacked
This warning can be seen if hackers have accessed the website and made changes to them. These changes may include adding redirects and SEO spam. Users will be redirected to harmful webpages or spam pages. This can significantly affect web traffic on the website.
4. The site ahead contains malware
Quite self-explanatory, this warning indicates that the website contains malicious content that can try to install on the visitor’s device. Again, the possible explanation for this is that a hacker injected malware into your website.
5. The site ahead contains harmful programs
There are two reasons why this warning pops up while accessing a website. One is the presence of malware content on the website which puts visitors at the risk of damaging their devices permanently. The second reason is showing advertisements on the website of low-quality advertisement networks.
How To Remove Google Warning Messages
1. Thoroughly scan for malware
One of the first things to do is to identify where the malware or infection is. For this, take a look at the Google Search console. You may get a hint as to whether it is a virus, trojan horse, SEO spam, etc., that is causing trouble. After that, you need to scan for malware. Remember to use a comprehensive, reliable scanner.
2. Remove the malware
After identifying the trouble-makers in your website, it is time to wipe them out. Go through all the system files and other important files. Identify any usual or suspicious changes that were made. Additionally, review file permissions to see if any changes were made there. Look for any additional users that you don’t recognize and remove them. There is also a chance that hackers left a backdoor on your website. You have to remove that as well. You can do this manually or get the help of security experts.
3. Submit your website for Google blacklist removal
The last step that you must follow to unflag your website is to submit your website for review. According to Google, the prerequisites for submitting for a review are:
- Verify the ownership of your website in the Google search console
- Remove any malware or harmful content on your website
- Bring the clean site back online
After doing the above and double-checking it, you can request a review. If your request has been denied, it means that you haven’t completely cleaned your website. Repeat the same procedure and submit for a review again.
Prevention
You probably had a very stressful experience dealing with the Google warning messages and blacklisting and I’m very certain you don’t want to do this again. Lucky for you, there are some preventive measures you can take to avoid this mess.
- Scan regularly for malware
- Install a rock-solid firewall
- Conduct frequent security audits and VAPT tests
- Get a team of security experts to assist you in securing your website.
There are so many such companies you can approach. One such company is Astra. The benefit of hiring Astra is that they provide malware scanners, a firewall, and conduct security audits. They will also have a blacklist scanner that can alert you about a possible blacklisting across 65+ search engines.
Conclusion
Google warning messages appear when some suspicious content is detected on a website. It could be because of malware injected by hackers. These messages can decrease web traffic on a website tremendously. This post talks about the various Google warning messages, how to remove them, and some preventative measures to avoid blacklisting.
