noindex being inserted by hack?

  • tikk

    (@tikk)


    6 years, 11 months ago

    My WP site is hosted by MediaTemple. I recently noticed that on some posts, the following has been inserted into the header:
    <meta name="robots" content="noindex">
    The code isn’t in my template, and it’s not in the archive version from when it was originally posted. Lending weight to the idea that I’ve been hacked is that the posts into which this code has been inserted are similar, topically–my site author is a journalist and the noindex’d posts aren’t flattering to a particular organization my author is writing about.

    I’m lost as to where to start but I’d like to figure out how this happened, and how to prevent it in the future. Thanks in advance for any help.

    Here are the widgets installed:
    24liveblog
    Attachment Pages Redirect
    BulletProof Security Pro
    Disqus Comment System
    Duplicate Widget
    Easy Google Analytics Dashboard [not activated]
    Featured Post Widget
    Google AdSense
    Google XML Sitemap
    Hupso Share Buttons for Twitter, Facebook & Google+
    iPaper
    Live Blogging [not activated]
    Mail Subscribe List
    Mobile theme switch [not activated]
    PayPal Donations
    PDF Embedder
    Polldaddy Polls & Ratings
    Print, PDF & Email by PrintFriendly
    Simple Instagram Embed
    Subscribe Forms Premium
    WordPress Backup to Dropbox
    WordPress Importer
    WP Categories Widget

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Davood Denavi

    (@binarywc)

    6 years, 11 months ago

    What theme are you using? Also have you checked the server for a robots.txt? This could be done through a robots.txt file as well.

    Thread Starter tikk

    (@tikk)

    6 years, 11 months ago

    Thanks for the reply.

    Theme: Atahualpa

    My robots.txt file hasn’t been modified since 2014. These post modifications are all recent.

    Davood Denavi

    (@binarywc)

    6 years, 11 months ago

    Are you using a child theme with a custom header? Also, some themes have a custom settings panel where custom headers can be added check for that. I am not familiar with your theme specifically so I do not know if there is such a setting in the theme.

    Hope this helps.

    Thread Starter tikk

    (@tikk)

    6 years, 11 months ago

    I can add custom header info via the theme but that’s not what’s going on here; and wouldn’t account for the fact that the noindex code only appears in some posts and not others.

    I don’t think this can be explained as anything other than a hack, given that the targeted posts contain similar content. I’m hoping to find out how it could have happened, or how I can discover how it might have happened.

    AITpro

    (@aitpro)

    6 years, 11 months ago

    Check this WordPress setting: Settings > Reading > Search Engine Visibility > Discourage search engines from indexing this site > the checkbox should be checked or WP will add this meta tag: <meta name='robots' content='noindex,follow' />.

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by AITpro.
    Davood Denavi

    (@binarywc)

    6 years, 11 months ago

    @aitpro beat me to the punch… that was my next suggestion.

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by Davood Denavi.
Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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