Search Engine Result Spoofing?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by Htown, Jan 28, 2013.

  1. #1
    I am developer and know very little about website marketing. I have a client that is having a very strange strange thing happening when you search for the name of their company, "Round Tree landscaping". See attachment below. How in the world is this happening? It is the same on Bing and Yahoo but different on Google. I did a search on the code for that page and there are no metatags or title tags that have any wording like this. I need to prevent this some how.
    Untitled-2.jpg

    Many thanks,
    Houston
     
    Htown, Jan 28, 2013 IP
  2. ryan_uk

    ryan_uk Illustrious Member

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    #2
    Your client's site has been hacked, mate. I am assuming the content is supposed to actually be about landscaping and not watches or pharmacy? Does your client (or you) have a backup of the site? Is your client using managed hosting or managing it themselves (or you're managing it for them)? Obviously, you need to get the site restored to an unhacked backup, but also secured. So that requires figuring out how it was hacked (your host might be able to help). It could have been the script, a weakness in the server, so many possibilities (shared hosting can often be quite vulnerable). Ask your client if it has happened in the past.

    EDIT: Basically, they are using cloaking depending upon the user-agent and the referrer. So, if you just go directly to the site then you see it normally, if you go directly but use a search engine Bot user-agent then you see the spam. If you click on the link in search results, you're redirect to a spam site about watches.
     
    ryan_uk, Jan 28, 2013 IP
  3. browntwn

    browntwn Illustrious Member

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    #3
    browntwn, Jan 28, 2013 IP
  4. PrometheusUK

    PrometheusUK Greenhorn

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    #4
    Yep, definitely due to the site being hacked. Joomla sites are particularly prone to this.. but most CMS have exploits that can be used by those who want to hack the site.

    Once you're sure that the site/database has been cleansed I would recommend adding a .htaccess password for a start to add an extra layer of protection to the admin area. I've worked on a number of Joomla sites that have been hacked several times, and adding .htaccess passwords has worked in all cases to stop them being hacked again.

    Obviously you should also make sure that the relevant file permissions are set and the version of Joomla is updated where possible to secure the site further too.
     
    PrometheusUK, Jan 28, 2013 IP
  5. GuruCreation

    GuruCreation Notable Member

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    #5
    WHOOOOOOAAA!

    Definitely hacked!... Ouch!

    When you search for it in Google, that same listing above is what I get too... When I click the link, I get redirected to this site: premium-replica.com <---- Nothing to do with landscaping there...lol

    Holla!~
     
    GuruCreation, Jan 28, 2013 IP