December 18, 2008 by Matt Thomas
Occasionally unfortunate individuals come to us and say that they have either received word from Google that there may be ‘badware’ being distributed from their site, or they have actually received a badware warning when browsing their own site. This is not a nice thing to happen, not least because it immediately presents you with two equally thorny problems; firstly, getting rid of the badware and secondly convincing Google that you have gotten rid of the badware.
As far as getting rid of it goes, that’s a little too complicated to go into here, though there are numerous helpful guides out there, (there’s a particularly good one on the Google Webmaster Blog) so there’s no need to despair.
After you’ve done the necessary fumigation, convincing Google that your site is now clean requires you to request a malware review from Google. They’ll take a look at your site, if they don’t agree that it’s clean they’ll present you with a list of the remaining dangerous URLs for you to clean up. If they do, you can expect the warnings on your site to disappear within 24 hours, though it may take a little longer for some browsers, i.e., Firefox to recognise the change.
If you feel your ranking has been affected by your bout of malware, it may also be worth filing a reconsideration request.
Being hacked is no fun at all but it needn’t ruin your week. If you follow these steps, you’ll be back on your feet in no time.
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