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Hacking / Malware / Porn / Spam Classification Effects

Occasionally, we see concern in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about the long term effects of Blogger hacking / malware / porn / spam classification or detection.
My blog was deleted, because of spurious spam classification - and later restored to service. Did my blog lose search engine reputation, in Google?

Any time a blog goes offline, its reputation is affected, to some extent. How much effect a hacking / malware / porn / spam classification or detection has, on any given blog, will vary widely. You might expect to see different penalties, for different offenses.

Every blog or website has different factors, which affect its reputation.
  • Readers, and links in their blogs and websites.
  • Readers, and inherent reputation.
  • Search engines, and inherent reputation.
These factors will differ, from blog to blog, in almost infinite variety.

Your readers provide much of your reputation.

If your blog has readers who maintain their own blogs and websites, some will see you as a useful source of information, and will link from their blog / website, to your blog. As a readers blog / website is indexed by a search engine bot, and a link to your blog is encountered, your blog is indexed. This causes indirect search engine reputation.

If your readers can't read your blog, you lose reputation.

Any time your blog is offline, even briefly, it loses reputation. If you use Google Webmaster Tools, look at the indexing logs. One event which you will see, from time to time, mentions "404 Not Found". Any time a search engine bot is indexing your blog, and it encounters a "404 Not Found", your blog loses reputation.

Loss of search reputation is similar to a person dying from blood loss. How fast the blood loss, and how long the loss continues, will affect how likely death will occur.

The longer the blog is offline, the greater the reputation loss.

The longer your blog is offline, the more "404 Not Found" events will be logged, as the search engine bots attempt to index the various pages in the blog. Each succeeding "404 Not Found" represents your blogs reputation, leaking away, drop by drop. The longer your blog is offline, the more reputation loss it suffers, from indirect and direct indexing.

Until reputation is regained, your blog appears lower in search results, because of lower page rank. You suffer from less search engine generated traffic, and less new readers. This is a circular effect - less search engine reputation leads to less new reader traffic, which leads to less search engine reputation.

When your blog is returned to online status, you slowly regain reputation.

When your blog is reviewed and restored to online status, indexing resumes. Each time a search engine bot indexes the blog, and does not encounter a "404 Not Found", reputation picks up, again. Slowly, your blog regains its former reputation.

All 3 factors contribute to the loss of reputation, while the blog is offline - and to the regaining of reputation, when the blog is restored. This is similar to the effect of re indexing after the URL is changed.

Reputation loss, and recovery, will vary - for every blog.

How much reputation is lost and regained will vary, from blog to blog.
  • Each blog has different readers, with differing links in their blogs and websites.
  • Each blog has different readers, with differing inherent reputation.
  • Each blog has differing search engine relationships, with differing inherent reputation.
The direct result, of all of this, explains the frantic posts, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken
My blog was deleted by Blogger. How promptly can I get it restored?

If this is a problem for you, use Google 2-Step Verification.

If this threat concerns you, use Google 2-step verification, to protect your Blogger / Google account - and your blogs - from hacking. And be discrete in advertising and publishing your blog.

Comments

But how can I prevent my blog from being hacked? I reeeeally wouldn't want that to happen!
Nitecruzr said…
NNN,

The absolute best way to protect your Blogger account (and your blog) from being hacked is to use Google 2-step verification.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2013/06/use-google-2-step-verification-to.html

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