Don't let a hacked website damage your online marketing efforts

In this episode of Digital Marketing for Contractors, Janet and Caitlin from Fat Cat Strategies discuss the crucial steps contractors should take when their website is hacked, along with the impact on SEO and digital marketing. They emphasize that while a hacked website can feel overwhelming, the first step is to stay calm and not panic. Websites are vital for lead generation, and recovering from a hack is critical for maintaining business operations.

The hosts outline the three essential steps to recover from a hack: cleaning your site, requesting a review from Google, and rebuilding trust with fresh, authoritative content. Cleaning your site involves either restoring a previous backup or using a service like Sucuri to remove malicious code. Once the site is clean, it's crucial to request a review from Google to ensure your website is re-indexed and deemed safe for visitors, as hacked sites are often de-indexed and removed from search results, which can severely impact traffic and visibility.

The final step is rebuilding trust with Google by publishing high-quality content that demonstrates Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T). This helps improve your site's reputation and ranking after a hack. The hosts also stress the importance of ongoing website protection, including malware scans, firewalls, and regular updates, to prevent future attacks.

They share an anecdote about a client who refused security measures and ended up with their website hacked, resulting in Japanese characters appearing in their Google search result titles. This example illustrates the importance of taking website security seriously.

In conclusion, they encourage listeners to protect their websites proactively and seek expert help if needed. Contractors should follow these steps to recover quickly and maintain their digital presence.

Want to find out how we can create a custom digital marketing game plan for your contractor business? Schedule a call with us at fatcatstrategies.com.

Transcript

Janet: Welcome to Digital Marketing for Contractors, a podcast for home improvement contractors to help you crush your lead goals and take your business to the next level. Join us each episode as we give you powerful insights and practical tips on the best digital marketing strategies to help you grow your home improvement business. Let’s get started.

Hello and welcome to Digital Marketing for Contractors, a podcast hosted by Fat Cat Strategies. We are a full-service digital marketing agency based in Raleigh, North Carolina. We specialize in driving leads, sales, and growth for the home improvement industry through digital marketing. My name is Janet, and I’m the founder and managing partner. Today, we are discussing an issue that, frankly, isn’t all that fun, but it’s the reality, and I think it’s an important topic.

Janet: I’m going to be talking about how to build a home improvement business and—wait, what are we talking about? We’re talking about your website getting hacked.

Caitlin: I’m here too!

Janet: You are. Sorry about that.

Caitlin: It’s okay. Keep rolling.

Janet: So, listener, here’s what happened: I was supposed to introduce Caitlin, and I didn’t.

Caitlin: No worries, you’re forgiven! Let’s just plow ahead.

Janet: Caitlin is the head of client services. She hasn’t been here for a while, just getting back into the swing of things. Let’s talk about what to do if your website is hacked and what you need to do on the SEO side of things to get that fixed.

Caitlin: So, Janet, set the scene for us. Why do websites get hacked?

Janet: Before we get into the "why" and "how," I want to remind everyone listening—you’re either the owner or manager of a home improvement company, and your website is a critical part of your public face, your lead generation machine, and your digital marketing. You’ve invested time, money, and energy into building it. So, if the day comes when your website is hacked, the very first thing you need to do—and this is crucial—is don’t panic.

Caitlin: That’s right. Just don’t panic. Take a breath, walk outside, and compose yourself.

Janet: Exactly. Nobody benefits if you’re losing your mind and screaming. Even if you feel like it’s your agency’s fault, calm heads are what you need, because you’ll need technical expertise to assess what’s going on and implement remediation steps. There are steps to follow, and we’ll talk about why hackers hack, but the time for yelling and blaming is later.

Caitlin: Agreed. And we could do a follow-up episode on hacked websites and the exact steps to take when it happens.

Janet: So, why do hackers hack? To be honest, my short answer is, I don’t always know. But most often, it’s an attempt to drive traffic to another site.

Caitlin: Right. Many hacks we’ve seen are aimed at driving backlinks to sketchy sites.

Janet: Exactly. I’ve seen a client’s website filled with links promoting off-brand Viagra. Why? Because the hackers wanted to generate traffic to their e-commerce site. It’s an SEO play—an unethical one, of course.

Caitlin: So, the hackers insert these backlinks into your site to boost the SEO of their own site. Once that happens, it messes up your SEO, leaving you with a lot of nonsense on your site.

Janet: And that’s what we’re going to talk about: how to fix that nonsense.

Caitlin: Right, and while we don’t need to worry about high-value data theft in most cases, the fact is, these hacks are frustrating and can do serious damage to your online presence.

Janet: So, let’s talk about how to fix it. Step one: clean your site and remove malicious code. If you have daily backups, that’s great. You can simply restore to the last stable backup before the hack. Worst case, you might lose some content like a recent blog post or promo, but that’s better than keeping the hacked version of your site live.

Caitlin: Exactly. If you don’t have a backup, you may need to pay for a service to clean your site. We recommend services like Sucuri (we’ll link to it in the show notes), which can help remove bad code.

Janet: Right. And for those who have ongoing malware protection, this process can be a lot easier. But assuming you don’t, the first step is always cleaning your site.

Caitlin: Step two is to request a review from Google. Not a five-star review, but a review for Google to rescan your site and confirm it’s clean.

Janet: That’s because as soon as Google indexes your hacked site, it marks it as a "bad actor" and your traffic can plummet.

Caitlin: Right. Google de-indexes hacked pages, meaning they disappear from search results to protect users. This can make you invisible to potential customers.

Janet: So after cleaning your site, request a review to get re-indexed. You can do this through Google Search Console.

Caitlin: Step three: rebuild trust with high-quality content. Google loves content that demonstrates Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T). If your site was hacked, adding this type of content can help recover your ranking faster.

Janet: So, it’s important to address the hack with technical fixes, but you also need to rebuild trust with Google by publishing authoritative content.

Caitlin: And even if your site hasn’t been hacked, you should always be adding E-A-T content to strengthen your SEO.

Janet: Lastly, you need ongoing monitoring and protection. We use daily malware scans, firewalls, and human monitoring to ensure our clients’ sites are safe. Even with all these protections, things can slip through, but we act quickly to address any issues.

Caitlin: Part of our service is ensuring that all the work we do for our clients—building trust, creating content—isn’t undone by something like a hack.

Janet: Definitely. One funny story: we had a client who refused to take our advice about protecting their site. Their site got hacked, and the titles in Google search results showed up in Japanese characters! We still don’t know why, but it was an interesting case.

Caitlin: Yeah, that was strange. But the takeaway is clear: you need protection for your website. It’s too important to risk getting hacked.

Janet: Exactly. So, to recap: clean your site, request a review from Google, and rebuild trust with high-quality content. Always monitor and protect your site moving forward.

Caitlin: And if your site does get hacked, stay calm, follow the steps, and you’ll be back in business in no time.

Janet: Thanks for listening. If you need help protecting your site or recovering from a hack, visit us at fatcatstrategies.com. We’d love to help.

Caitlin: Thanks, everyone!

Janet: Digital Marketing for Contractors is created by Fat Cat Strategies. For more information, visit fatcatstrategies.com.