Is this an Algorithm update or Malware penalty

[Derrick49]

Hello,

Please I just need some expert insight on what could be the case here.. so as to know what steps to take next.

I’m confused if I’ve been hit by the March algorithm update or a plugin containing malware believed to have redirected my search traffic caused a penalty on the website.

The last core update started on the 5th of March and the rollout completed on the 19th of April

I experienced the drastic drop on the 23rd of April around the same time a nulled plugin was activated. I never verified where the search traffic was redirecting or if it was indeed redirecting at all.. the moment I was told it’s nulled.. I deleted it..

Checked around for what nulled plugins does and it’s similar to the issue I was having in that moment.. “redirecting search traffic”

I used the Panguin tool to check my traffic drop against the recent core update and it shows it’s way before I even started generating traffic to the site:

I’ve since cleaned up the website and have verified this using different tools including malcare and wordfence. No manual or security action in search console, so I can’t appeal that the malware had been removed.

All Google tools points out my site is fine. But new posts are not ranking at all.. not showing in search results but are indexed. Trending old ones disappeared completely.

From 2,000 - 3,000 daily traffic to 100 - 200

I used third party tools not belonging to Google and one showed that my site is being penalized.

ismysitepenalized.com

I just want to know for sure if this is from the algorithm update or a penalty for the malware redirecting search traffic, so as to know what next step to take.

Can one be hit with the algorithm update after the rollout has ended?

If not and most likely a penalty from the malware redirecting search traffic.. What are the best practices to recover and get posts ranked back after making a clean up?

Thank you.

 

[tylero]

It could be the malware but then again it would have redirected ALL of your traffic instead of some.

Bear in mind that according to Googlers, HCU is always live and active now, so you could have been hammered.

 

[Derrick49]

It could be the malware but then again it would have redirected ALL of your traffic instead of some.

Bear in mind that according to Googlers, HCU is always live and active now, so you could have been hammered.

I think it was targeting seo traffic and all the posts that were sending in traffic at the time disappeared.

From what I noticed.. cause I’m always on analytics checking what’s trending. All trending posts at the time disappeared. Most likely after the Google noticed the redirections to another site.

All posts that were sending in good traffic at the time disappeared. First I noticed a huge drop in analytics data.. I thought it was my server issue not being able to take the traffic or database issue. I spent a lot of time with my hosting trying to solve this.. never thought of checking what was happening to the posts on Google.

Amid the back and forth, the cache plugin support sent me an email that what I’m having is a nulled plugin.. I did a quick search on nulled plugins and what I found was shocking.

I deactivated it immediately.. that same night I had 0 data at a point showing in live users on analytics. But as a news websites, old posts gets clicks at intervals and mostly serve as additional traffic to what’s trending.

The few 100 - 200 posts were from old posts and they’re not static.. so most likely escaped the redirections at the time because they weren’t getting clicks at the time. That’s just my theory.

I’ve tried making new posts with less competition.. in fact no competition.. it’s supposed to easily rank .. but no.. indexed but still won’t rank.

Is that how algorithm update works. And my site showing penalized .. does algorithm update shows penalized too..

The tool says otherwise “Please note the results of this tool are conservative and a tested site will not usually appear as penalized in case of unfavorable algorithmic assessments that may have been applied to it.”

Per adventure it’s a penalty from the plugin.. how do you think I can fix this.. ?