If you’ve ever come across a “Deceptive site ahead” warning while browsing the web, you know how detrimental it can be to a website. This warning is displayed by Google when a website is found to be exposing personal user information. It can result in a sudden loss of user traffic, negative SEO, and other negative impacts. In this article, we’ll explore the reasons why this warning might appear on your website and how to fix it.
Reasons for Deceptive Site Ahead Warning Message on Your Website
There are several reasons why a website might trigger a deceptive site ahead warning. These include:
1. Unauthorized user intervention: Hackers may have gained access to your website and are using it to collect sensitive information from users.
2. Malware infection: Your website may have been infected with malware that redirects users to spammy sites.
3. Security misconfiguration: Your website may have some hidden backdoor code or script that Google interprets as malicious.
4. Malicious backlinking: Your website may be prone to malicious backlinking, which can lead to the stealing of sensitive user information.
5. Credit card stealing malware: There may be credit card stealing malware residing on your website, which is designed to steal credit card data and send it to malicious intruders.
Fixing the Deceptive Site Ahead Warning Message by Google
If your website triggers a deceptive site ahead warning, it means that attackers have compromised your site and are using it for phishing. This means that users are being served fake pages that trick them into revealing their credentials, credit card info, and other crucial information. Here’s how to fix the issue:
Step 1: Find the Cause of Infection
The first step towards fixing the deceptive site ahead warning is to locate the infection. This could be present in a single page, file, folder, or the entire website. To identify the hack, you can take several steps, including:
1. Using manual search: While manual search is not the ideal way for malware detection, it can be a great start if you know your website in and out. Look for any suspicious third-party javascript files, iFrames, HTML tags, or other fishy-looking elements loading on that page.
2. Using malware scanners: Several free online tools and malware scanner plugins are available that you can use to find the infected pages on your website.
3. Using Google Search Console: Google search console is a great help for locating infected pages on your site.
Step 2: Clean the Website
Once you’ve identified the infected files or hacked resources, the next step is to clean the website. Delete the malicious code in infected files, remove suspicious users from the database and dashboard, delete any buggy or null plugins and themes, and alert users to reset their credentials.
Step 3: Submit Site for Review
The last step is to submit the website to Google for a review. Before doing so, make sure you have double-checked your website for backdoors or malware. If all is spick and span, submit the site for review using these steps:
1. Login to your Google Search Console.
2. Click and open the Security Issues report section and select “I have fixed these issues.”
3. Click on “Request a review” and tell in detail the steps you took in fixing the warning.
4. Finally, click “Submit Request” and wait for Google to review your request.
Fixing a deceptive site ahead warning message can be a cumbersome process depending on the type of infection. So the best bet to protect yourself against such a situation is to take proactive steps to secure your site. Using a firewall and other secure development and maintenance practices will do wonders for your website’s security.
