This site may harm your computer – Google Warning Message and SEO Effects
19th August 2009 by Kerry Dye
If your site has a reason to display the “This site may harm your computer” message, first of all, you need to fix the site! Identify the pages that have the problem and remove it. Then close the security loophole that was used to install the code. Change your FTP password, or lock the FTP down to specific IP addresses. For more information on how a site hack like this happens see Matt’s analysis.
So now you have fixed the problem, how do you get rid of the message? Here are some options.
1. Wait – Google will eventually revisit the pages and remove the message
2. Use the “Request a Review” option in Google Webmaster Tools – NB although the review is supposed to be an automated procedure, this process may take longer if it is the weekend.
3. If you use Adwords, call Google (or get your PPC management company to do it), this could expedite the review
The SEO Effects
The long term SEO effects seem to be few – once the site has been fixed and the message removed, positions will normally bounce back to roughly the same place.
However in the short term, you will drop for the affected search terms. This is due to the fact that your site will be passed over by users (e.g. they won’t click on it) this affects the feedback mechanism that Google uses as part of its algorithm, where more clicked on results get moved up and less clicked on results get moved down. This effect is more marked the higher volume the search term affected.
PPC Effects
You will need to pause any PPC keywords that land on any affected pages, or those users will bounce right back (and you will still be charged for the click!!) Other pages may not be affected, but I would recommend testing to make sure.
Google Analytics
Interestingly, Google Analytics detects the “intercepted” visits and will show your site as having a 100% bounce rate for the affected pages, which is another way of highlighting the problem to you. This is also a possible way of identifying the affected pages, because although Google tells you the number, it doesn’t tell you which pages – which can be a problem for big sites.
Requesting Feedback
The Google Anti-Malware team are currently asking for feedback using Google Moderator so if you have any questions about the process, or comments on the wording, you can highlight them to them here.
Kerry Dye
Campaign Delivery Manager
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