WordPress SEO spam links - Japanese keyword hack
In 2022, the so-called Japanese Keyword Hack is still going strong.
As a symptom of a WordPress hack, Japanese (Chinese) pages are automatically generated and placed in the search results, and sometimes submitted to Google in the thousands via similarly compromised sitemaps.
If the SEO spam persists for longer, it leads to significant ranking losses. We help get the problem under control quickly.
Detect SEO spam URLs - analyze Japanese SERPs
SERP = Search Engine Result Page = search results page
A Google search for site:example.com returns all pages that Google has in its search index for a domain.
Apart from major news portals or shops, the total number of indexed pages is usually in the double- to triple-digit range. An SEO spam attack can easily generate many thousands of new pages. Not only new pages - existing ones are also flooded with Japanese keyword spam.
Warning: In WordPress, SEO spam can also appear in the form of spam posts. So check the posts overview for any newly created posts.
Fix the Japanese Keyword Hack
After the hack has been cleaned up and the website has been secured, the following steps are then necessary for the Japanese Keyword Hack so that the SEO spam is removed from the titles and descriptions in the search results:
- Make sure (for example via .htaccess) that all newly created spam pages return the status code 410 - Gone when accessed. This signals to Google that the respective page has been removed and will not return. As a result, the URL disappears from the search index faster.
- Add the website to Google Search Console.
- Check under Settings -> Users and Permissions whether there are any new/unwanted users in Google Search Console - remove them.
- Submit a spam-free sitemap to Google (e.g. from Yoast or Rank Math).
- Request reindexing of the homepage and the most important subpages.
After 1-2 days, the meta tags of the existing pages should have normalized again.
It can take a few weeks until all Japanese characters have been removed from the search index. However, this is not too serious, because regular searchers will no longer be confronted with it once the meta tags of all intended subpages (according to the sitemap) are intact again.
Full-service WordPress hack cleanup - 249 €
We take care of all the work needed after a hacker attack. This includes not only the removal of WordPress SEO spam but also the cleanup of search results.
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- Last Updated: 09 August 2022
