Google Sends Out 20,000 Weird Redirect Hacked Notifications

Apr 17, 2012 - 8:10 am 3 by

Google Site Compromised LabelYesterday, Google sent out about 20,000 warnings to webmasters that have had their sites compromised and may have no idea about it.

Matt Cutts tweeted they sent out these notifications of "your site might be hacked" for sites suffering from "weird redirects."

Recently, I have seen several sites reported to have weird redirects but the redirects are hard to track down. The hack is where the hacker gains access to your HTACCESS and only redirects users who click from Google to your web site. Otherwise, if they type in the domain name directly, there will be no redirect.

We've seen cases of sites getting labeled and even seen horrible cases of the canonical tag being used in hacks. Just be careful and check webmaster tools and secure your site.

Here is Matt's tweet:

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: January 20, 2026

Jan 20, 2026 - 10:00 am
Google

Google AI Overviews With Font Strikethroughs

Jan 20, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google

Google AI Mode Fan-Out Prompts To Narrow Your Query

Jan 20, 2026 - 7:41 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Search Team Does Not Endorse LLMs.txt Files

Jan 20, 2026 - 7:31 am
Bing Ads

Poll: More Advertisers To Add Microsoft Advertising To Marketing Mix?

Jan 20, 2026 - 7:21 am
Google

Google AI Mode Shows Product Inventory & Pricing In Light Font Color

Jan 20, 2026 - 7:11 am
 
Previous Story: Google Author Stats Goes Missing From Webmaster Tools