[HELP] Lost rankings after a hack

[UndefinedCF]

I posted recently asking for some help with a hacked website. The best option that I had was to start fresh here.

And since the backups that I had were infected too, I simply copied all the content manually and put it in Google docs, then moved it back to a fresh hosting account with no other domains.

But in the week the hack happened, I lost the only few keywords that had started ranking on position #3, #4 etc.

The website isn't deindexed, so that's good. But the dip is clear in Search Console traffic.

Any experienced folks know what's the best way to go ahead here?

 

[David Willy]

Recover your site with the same links and slug which were indexed before hack. Then wait for while you will get back your ranking soon .

 

[Psh]

Did you remake your site exactly as it was before? Same theme, settings, plugins, permalinks etc?

 

[Mr Positive]

Did you remake your site exactly as it was before? Same theme, settings, plugins, permalinks etc?

if that’s a yes and you were using infected plugin how will you be safe?

 

[Psh]

if that’s a yes and you were using infected plugin how will you be safe?

Fair enough, I guess except the plugin in question that actually had the backdoor/whatever. It might not have been a plugin though, hacks can still happen.

Or he can just buy the plugin if it was nulled etc.

For example, if he had a plugin that changes Woocommerce permalinks and then skips it next installation, his permalinks will be wrong, so it can affect his ranks. And some other plugins won't matter.

 

[UndefinedCF]

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Recover your site with the same links and slug which were indexed before hack. Then wait for while you will get back your ranking soon .

Yep did just that. Anything that can speed up the process a bit at all?

Did you remake your site exactly as it was before? Same theme, settings, plugins, permalinks etc?

Yes exact copy without the infected parts of the site.

if that’s a yes and you were using infected plugin how will you be safe?

Yes I got rid of the infected part of the code. It wasn't a plugin but someone got shell access to hosting and ran a crappy PHP script that edited every post and added a JS redirect.

Fair enough, I guess except the plugin in question that actually had the backdoor/whatever. It might not have been a plugin though, hacks can still happen.

Or he can just buy the plugin if it was nulled etc.

For example, if he had a plugin that changes Woocommerce permalinks and then skips it next installation, his permalinks will be wrong, so it can affect his ranks. And some other plugins won't matter.

I kept track of every new page/post published with their links so the URLs are an exact replica. What changed is how the website behaved for a week with most posts redirecting to a spammy website.

 

[MisterXYZ]

Manually submit each URL and request for indexing in GSC.

It will take some time to get back your ranking.

 

[RadzNguyen]

Recover your site with all post theme plugins

 

[UndefinedCF]

Manually submit each URL and request for indexing in GSC.

It will take some time to get back your ranking.

Doing it right away. Though all URLs are old it seems like Google doesn't want any major changes to content it trusts?

Recover your site with all post theme plugins

Yep did just that right away. Only thing that had changed was the post "dates" which I couldn't recover unfortunately.

 

[webhostingproviders]

Permalinks and slugs are most important if thats correctly setup then don't worry

 

[RadzNguyen]

Doing it right away. Though all URLs are old it seems like Google doesn't want any major changes to content it trusts?


Yep did just that right away. Only thing that had changed was the post "dates" which I couldn't recover unfortunately.

Permalinks and slugs are most important . Don't worry about post dates. Good luck to you.

 

[UndefinedCF]

Permalinks and slugs are most important if thats correctly setup then don't worry

Permalinks and slugs are most important . Don't worry about post dates. Good luck to you.

Thanks a lot for the affirmation. I'll keep publishing new pieces. It was a shock to see the complete traffic vanish in just a few days that was built over a few months and I almost gave up on this site.

But let's hope it works out. I'll publish results in a few months. Hope it goes fine!