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1. Crumblecrumb1
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Hi,

   This is a repost because my other seems to have labelled 'topic not found' (I may have broken posting guidelines, I'm not sure)

   About two weeks ago my blog traffic dropped off considerably.

   I checked in Google Webmaster Tools and I had some 21,000 backlinks - all obvious spam. I contacted my host and they removed the ‘cnsxb’ folder (which seemed to house all the links). I also changed all my wordpress, host and FTP passwords and rebuilt permalinks.

   However traffic on the site still remains low, about a quarter of what it used to be. Also the 21,000-odd backlinks are still showing up in Webmaster Tools, now with 180 broken 404 links.

   Plus today I found some html for one of my posts on a site that had '.Buy Online. Free Prescription. FedEx Shipping' attached at the end by googling ‘clothesonfilm.com’

   As best I could I've checked all through my blog for evidence of hacking. I could not find any, even after searching all the plug-ins. Furthermore the site shows up as clean in a parasite checker.

   I’ll be honest I really have VERY little technical expertise, though I do maintain and run the site myself. If anyone out there could walk me through this problem in idiot proof language I would really appreciate it. I’ve looked everywhere for help and followed what I could understand. End of my tether here.

   Thanks in advance,

   Chris

2. alism
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Install the latest version of WordPress, re-install your theme and download and install fresh copies of all your plugins. It'd probably be worth installing the exploit scanner plugin too:
   http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exploit-scanner/
   to try and spot any other nastiness going on that you may have missed.

   Read both of these:
   http://codex.wordpress.org/FAQ_My_site_was_hacked
   http://smackdown.blogsblogsblogs.com/2008/06/24/how-to-completely-clean-your-hacked-wordpress-installation/

   After you've cleaned your site, double checked, then triple checked that it's squeaky clean, file a reconsideration request with Google (assuming that's where the drop off in traffic is of course).
   http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35843

3. Crumblecrumb1
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Thank you for your help. I spent yesterday following your advice. Running a search for site: clothesonfilm.com today I can't find anything obviously dodgy.

   This is where my post was mentioned before:

   HERE

   I checked the post itself but cannot find anything wrong. Hopefully what you have suggested will be enough. I contacted my host and they helpfully said my database has not backed up properly so there was nothing they could do.

   I hope that after this my broken links and thousands of backlinks listed in Google Webmaster Tools will repair in time.

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