: Hacked Sites duplicating website & Google seeing wrong cache Noticed a severe drop in organic rankings and traffic, after investigating what might have been the cause we have found 3 websites

@Ravi8258870

Problem explained:-

This hack is getting very common these days. This is surely a glitch on part of Google which is being implemented with the help of hacked websites.

Duplicate websites which are being shown in Google are hacked websites. They are being used as an intermediary to redirect traffic on other websites(or amazon affiliate links in the same niche). These websites may be owned by hacker trying to get traffic on their websites.

Solution:-

All you can do is contact the owner of duplicate/hacked website and asking him to remove the malware from his website ASAP. Once he fixes the website, You will get back your rankings within 1-2 days surely.

I suggest you not to file DMCA complaint against the domain as he is the victim of this hack as well. It's just that he might be unaware that his website contains malware.

Source:-

I also faced the exact problem with my website.

All my rankings were gone, traffic was down to zero and some fake URL was being displayed in Google which was being redirected to some other website (in same niche) if we visit from clicking on Google. That fake website was opening fine when viewed normally. Also if we visit it as "Googlebot" then it was showing exact copy of my website with all content same.

I hope it helps.

Thanks

Vote Up Vote Down

@Cugini213

This may be a sneaky blackhat trick I've seen before, see if the below sounds like it could be it.


They take a copy of your website HTML/images etc and store in a subfolder of a domain. Software such as WinHTTrack may have been used for this.
They create and submit a sitemap of this static content to Google Webmaster Tools under their domain and wait a few days for the content to be indexed.
They remove the copy of your website from their subfolder and replace it with an .htaccess file specifying 301 or 302 redirects of all requested inbound to that folder to a strategic URL of their choice.
The result is a ton of indexed pages for your content pointing to their domain which when clicked on, directs them to a competitor of yours. These indexed entries get higher up in Google due to genuine page-rank because of the amount of traffic they steal using this method, there may be many websites they've done this to in the past under that domain name, or subdomains or subfolders of that domain.




Your best bet to try and regain your organic high placement in Google might be to:


report a DMCA infringement via the Chilling Effects website.
Even if you're not based in the U.S., Google will:


(a) investigate your claim and should find your content in their archives dating back much further than this naughty domain;

(b) remove the entries from their index for the naughty domain that appear to benefit from this exploit tactic;

(c) add a note to the bottom of their Google Search pages when related terms are entered to inform users that entries have been removed due to copyright infringment.


report the naughty domain name to the relevant registrar as an abusive registration, providing evidence to the behaviour, ideally with dates and times of your discovering it.
report the naughty domain name to their hosting provider providing evidence of current copyright infringment where possible and any evidence to explain and show this strategy of stealing search engine position and clicks for a competitor using your content.

Vote Up Vote Down