WordPress sites can be hacked and all of your Google rankings destroyed, all without you knowing about it. That's right, somebody who reads this article, who currently uses Wordpress has already been hacked and doesn't even know it.
First of all, I love WordPress. It's not that WordPress sites, in and of themselves, are particularly easy to hack, but if the user isn't active in maintaining his or her site, you will get hacked. Any site can get hacked. If you want to check your site (any website), right now, go here: http://sucuri.net and use the free tool.
If it tells you are clean, great! But you aren't done. If you don't want to read this post, skip straight to the video below. It will take you 7 minutes to watch and another 5 minutes to do and your website will be safer.
You Won't Know Why You're Rankings Are Dropping, but They Are...
A couple of years ago, I sold the domain, azwm.com. When I sold it, the domain did very well in Google for all kinds of Arizona mortgage related search phrases. It was once great for Arizona VA loans, but, lately, just dropped out of site. Like, not even the first ten pages for the stuff they used to be on page 1 for.
By performing a search that was guaranteed to show me azwm.com, I saw this in the search results, page 6:
Oh no!
I looked a little closer and it had hidden links to Viagra websites, a couple of porn links... All hidden from view. On top of that, as you can see, Google is aware the site has been hacked. Even worse, it's been infected for a couple of months. Dropping further and further in the rankings because the malware was spreading through their website.
1. If you manage your own WordPress site, like many of you do, be sure you login often (preferably every day) and check to see if there is anything that needs to be updated. Backup your site and then update.
2. Install BulletProof security, which can be found here, but I would just install it through my WP dashboard.
3. Scan your site for hacks all of the time; many people are hacked without knowing it for months. In the video below, I recommend a plugin for doing it.
4. Use Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics and monitor your site closely.
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