Dealing With Website Hacking

Do you find that the traffic to your website has dropped suddenly and your sales level has come down drastically because of this? Are you wondering why your website’s traffic has dropped suddenly despite having good search engine ranking? The first thing you should check is whether your website’s integrity has been compromised in any way. You need to check whether your website has been hacked or your website has become a source for distributing malware.

This can be a highly frightening experience for the webmasters to learn that their websites have been hacked and that their website has now become a malware distribution website. When your website has been hacked or if it hosts malware without your knowledge Google search results will list your website with the warning which reads, “This site may harm your computer.” After seeing this no one in his or her good senses will ever dare to click on your website’s link and visit your website.
There are many undesirable forces on the internet that try to hack websites of unassuming webmasters to distribute viruses, malware and other malicious software.

Alternatively, this could also be a result of your competitor’s act. Unscrupulous competitors unable to fight the battle in a legitimate way try to get you down by using shameful strategies such as hacking their competitors’ websites and implanting malware.
If you have not experienced anything like this before do not be too happy as it can happen any day to your website too. First make sure that your website has been fully secured and that there are no loopholes for the hackers to get into your site and to claim ownership without your knowledge.

In case you have become one of the unfortunate victims of such a malicious act, do not panic. You must however act swiftly. You must check your website thoroughly and clean your website of all malicious software and malware. Seal all the loopholes so that such things do not relapse.
Once you have cleaned up your site and secured your website, contact Google to review your website so that they can remove the warning notice that they display along with your website’s listing. You will find how to go about it in the following page: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=163634.

Google issues such warning notices keeping in mind the best interests of its users. It is much better for your customers to stay away from your website rather than getting their computers hijacked or getting their confidential data stolen as it will cause greater harm. Many internet users will try to get more information about your site and why such a warning is displayed along with your website in the forums and blogs. So as a curative measure, you should post apologies in forums and blogs that are relevant to your niche explaining the problem, that you are working on the issue and users will be able to make use of your website without any problem soon. Such an approach will guard your reputation despite the crisis.

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