undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • MozCon
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Digital Marketers
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research
    Moz Pro

    Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research

    Try it free!
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • MozCon

      Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Digital Marketers

      Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
  4. Malicious site pointed A-Record to my IP, Google Indexed

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Malicious site pointed A-Record to my IP, Google Indexed

Intermediate & Advanced SEO
3
10
1.3k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • FranGen
    FranGen last edited by May 15, 2013, 9:28 AM

    Hello All,

    I launched my site on May 1 and as it turns out, another domain was pointing it's A-Record to my IP. This site is coming up as malicious, but worst of all, it's ranking on keywords for my business objectives with my content and metadata, therefore I'm losing traffic.

    I've had the domain host remove the incorrect A-Record and I've submitted numerous malware reports to Google, and attempted to request removal of this site from the index. I've resubmitted my sitemap, but it seems as though this offending domain is still being indexed more thoroughly than my legitimate domain.

    Can anyone offer any advice? Anything would be greatly appreciated!

    Best regards,

    Doug

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • Cyrus-Shepard
      Cyrus-Shepard @FranGen last edited by May 16, 2013, 4:57 PM May 16, 2013, 4:57 PM

      Yes, sorry, Fetch as Google: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=158587

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • FranGen
        FranGen @Cyrus-Shepard last edited by May 16, 2013, 4:39 PM May 16, 2013, 4:39 PM

        Thanks Cyrus. Do you mean Fetch as Google? I'm not too familiar with that specific tool.

        Just in case someone runs into the same issue that I've encountered, I'll include my final steps in remedying this problem (hopefully).

        I was finally able to contact the webmaster of the other domain who agreed to take down the site. I contacted GoDaddy to confirm her site was down, since I wasn't risking getting my machine infected with malware. Next I went to Webmaster Tools and requested content removal, page by page until all of the bad URLs were submitted.

        In my frustration and possibly paranoia, I've also had to battle with GoDaddy to get a new dedicated IP address since I believe this IP could now be "tainted" or flagged as a malicious or spammy.

        Cyrus, you couldn't be more accurate. Extremely tough to wait out. Hopefully this will help someone out down the road.

        Thanks again.

        Cyrus-Shepard 1 Reply Last reply May 16, 2013, 4:57 PM Reply Quote 0
        • Cyrus-Shepard
          Cyrus-Shepard @FranGen last edited by May 16, 2013, 3:52 PM May 16, 2013, 3:52 PM

          Hi Edward,

          You might have already done this, but:

          1. Crawl as Googlebot to your homepage - submit all pages and all linked pages to index.

          2. You said you submitted your sitemap. Submit it again.

          3. Hopefully this will resolve in a couple weeks. Tough to wait it out.

          FranGen 1 Reply Last reply May 16, 2013, 4:39 PM Reply Quote 0
          • FranGen
            FranGen @Highland last edited by May 15, 2013, 3:06 PM May 15, 2013, 3:06 PM

            Nope, it doesn't. I guess it's just a waiting game at this point. Thank you again.

            Cyrus-Shepard 1 Reply Last reply May 16, 2013, 3:52 PM Reply Quote 0
            • Highland
              Highland @FranGen last edited by May 15, 2013, 3:06 PM May 15, 2013, 3:02 PM

              Does it still resolve to your site? If not, it should fall off as Google spiders it again.

              FranGen 1 Reply Last reply May 15, 2013, 3:06 PM Reply Quote 1
              • FranGen
                FranGen @Highland last edited by May 15, 2013, 2:18 PM May 15, 2013, 2:18 PM

                Thank you! This will prevent future issues, but in terms of the other domain pulling rank on mine, is that something I need to wait out since I have no control? Is there any way to have it removed?

                Highland 1 Reply Last reply May 15, 2013, 3:02 PM Reply Quote 0
                • Highland
                  Highland @FranGen last edited by May 15, 2013, 3:06 PM May 15, 2013, 2:15 PM

                  Your htaccess file can do the 301 (it's actually a config file you can control). Here's some sample code that should do the trick.

                  RewriteEngine on
                  RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} .
                  RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.domain.com
                  RewriteRule (.*) http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

                  FranGen 1 Reply Last reply May 15, 2013, 2:18 PM Reply Quote 1
                  • FranGen
                    FranGen @Highland last edited by May 15, 2013, 1:21 PM May 15, 2013, 1:21 PM

                    Thanks for your reply! It's hosted with GoDaddy on their Economy package. I believe it's shared hosting.

                    With that being said, unfortunately I don't have access to the server config. How would I go about implementing a 301 redirect for the other domain or even better a 404?

                    I absolutely agree about modifying the htaccess. As it stands now, I've hacked it together, but I'll see if I can find out how to do what you're suggesting.

                    I appreciate your feedback so far.

                    Best regards

                    Highland 1 Reply Last reply May 15, 2013, 2:15 PM Reply Quote 0
                    • Highland
                      Highland last edited by May 15, 2013, 3:06 PM May 15, 2013, 12:33 PM

                      That sounds like a bad web server config. Most servers run a virtual host, meaning the URL determines what website is served up. Either you have your own virtual dedicated server and only one site that isn't using vhost, or your host has set your website up as the default site.

                      If you have control over the web server config, I would add the malicious site to the config as a hosted site and then have it return a 404. That should de-index it.

                      If you don't have that level of control, try to get a 301 redirect for the bad domain. You really need  something like an htaccess that says if a site is accessing my website as anything but www.mydomain.com it needs to 301 to that URL. Otherwise anyone in the world can hijack your site the way it's set up now. Just point another A record and instant duplicate content headaches.

                      FranGen 1 Reply Last reply May 15, 2013, 1:21 PM Reply Quote 2
                      • 1 / 1
                      1 out of 10
                      • First post
                        1/10
                        Last post

                      Got a burning SEO question?

                      Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                      Start my free trial


                      Browse Questions

                      Explore more categories

                      • Moz Tools

                        Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                      • SEO Tactics

                        Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                      • Community

                        Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                      • Digital Marketing

                        Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                      • Research & Trends

                        Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                      • Support

                        Connect on product support and feature requests.

                      • See all categories

                      Related Questions

                      • MattBassos

                        What IP Address does Googlebot use to read your site when coming from an external backlink?

                        Hi All, I'm trying to find more information on what IP address Googlebot would use when arriving to crawl your site from an external backlink. I'm under the impression Googlebot uses international signals to determine the best IP address to use when crawling (US / non-US) and then carries on with that IP when it arrives to your website? E.g. - Googlebot finds www.example.co.uk. Due to the ccTLD, it decides to crawl the site with a UK IP address rather than a US one. As it crawls this UK site, it finds a subdirectory backlink to your website and continues to crawl your website with the aforementioned UK IP address. Is this a correct assumption, or does Googlebot look at altering the IP address as it enters a backlink / new domain? Also, are ccTLDs the main signals to determine the possibility of Google switching to an international IP address to crawl, rather than the standard US one? Am I right in saying that hreflang tags don't apply here at all, as their purpose is to be used in SERPS and helping Google to determine which page to serve to users based on their IP etc. If anyone has any insight this would be great.

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Oct 23, 2018, 1:27 PM | MattBassos
                        0
                      • chelseaskirtinguk

                        My product category pages are not being indexed on google can someone help?

                        My website has been indexed on google and all of its pages can be found on google except for the product category pages - which are where we want our traffic heading to, so this is a big problem for us. Our website is www.skirtinguk.com And an example of a page that isn't being indexed is https://www.skirtinguk.com/product-category/mdf-skirting-board/

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Jul 1, 2022, 1:09 PM | chelseaskirtinguk
                        0
                      • lcourse

                        How long after https migration that google shows in search console new sitemap being indexed?

                        We migrated 4 days ago to https and followed best practices..
                        In search console now still 80% of our sitemaps appear as "pending" and among those sitemaps that were processed only less than 1% of submitted pages appear as indexed? Is this normal ?
                        How long does it take for google to index pages from sitemap? 
                        Before https migration nearly all our pages were indexed and I see in the crawler stats that google has crawled a number of pages each day after migration that corresponds to number of submitted pages in sitemap. Sitemap and crawler stats show no errors.

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Sep 27, 2017, 7:40 PM | lcourse
                        0
                      • adzhass

                        Google cache is showing my UK homepage site instead of the US homepage and ranking the UK site in US

                        Hi There, When I check the cache of the US website (www.us.allsaints.com) Google returns the UK website. This is also reflected in the US Google Search Results when the UK site ranks for our brand name instead of the US site. The homepage has hreflang tags only on the homepage and the domains have been pointed correctly to the right territories via Google Webmaster Console.This has happened before in 26th July 2015 and was wondering if any had any idea why this is happening or if any one has experienced the same issueFDGjldR

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Nov 17, 2015, 7:18 AM | adzhass
                        0
                      • vivekrathore

                        "Null" appearing as top keyword in "Content Keywords" under Google index in Google Search Console

                        Hi, "Null" is appearing as top keyword in Google search console > Google Index > Content Keywords for our site http://goo.gl/cKaQ4K . We do not use "null" as keyword on site. We are not able to find why Google is treating "null" as a keyword for our site. Is anyone facing such issue. Thanks & Regards

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Aug 4, 2015, 7:04 AM | vivekrathore
                        0
                      • vivekrathore

                        Google indexing pages from chrome history ?

                        We have pages that are not linked from site yet they are indexed in Google. It could be possible if Google got these pages from browser. Does Google takes data from chrome?

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Jun 19, 2015, 2:37 PM | vivekrathore
                        0
                      • nicole.healthline

                        Best way to de-index content from Google and not Bing?

                        We have a large quantity of URLs that we would like to de-index from Google (we are affected b Panda), but not Bing. What is the best way to go about doing this?

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Nov 8, 2011, 5:07 AM | nicole.healthline
                        0
                      • TECHeGO

                        Getting Google to Correct a Misspelled Site Link...Help!

                        My company website recently got its site links in google search... WooHoo! However, when you type TECHeGO into Google Search one of the links is spelled incorrectly. Instead of 'CONversion Optimization' its 'COversion Optimization'. At first I thought there was a misspelling on that page somewhere but there is not and have come to the conclusion that Google has made a mistake. I know that I can block the page in webmaster tools (No Thanks) but how in the crap can I get them to correct the spelling when no one really knows how to get them to appear in the first place? Riddle Me That Folks! sitelink.jpg

                        Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Apr 25, 2011, 2:31 PM | TECHeGO
                        0

                      Get started with Moz Pro!

                      Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                      Start my free trial
                      Products
                      • Moz Pro
                      • Moz Local
                      • Moz API
                      • Moz Data
                      • STAT
                      • Product Updates
                      Moz Solutions
                      • SMB Solutions
                      • Agency Solutions
                      • Enterprise Solutions
                      • Digital Marketers
                      Free SEO Tools
                      • Domain Authority Checker
                      • Link Explorer
                      • Keyword Explorer
                      • Competitive Research
                      • Brand Authority Checker
                      • Local Citation Checker
                      • MozBar Extension
                      • MozCast
                      Resources
                      • Blog
                      • SEO Learning Center
                      • Help Hub
                      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                      • How-to Guides
                      • Moz Academy
                      • API Docs
                      About Moz
                      • About
                      • Team
                      • Careers
                      • Contact
                      Why Moz
                      • Case Studies
                      • Testimonials
                      Get Involved
                      • Become an Affiliate
                      • MozCon
                      • Webinars
                      • Practical Marketer Series
                      • MozPod
                      Connect with us

                      Contact the Help team

                      Join our newsletter
                      Moz logo
                      © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                      • Accessibility
                      • Terms of Use
                      • Privacy

                      Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.