Meaning of ‘Deceptive Site Ahead’ Warning and Why Google Displays this Warning Message
- Your website could be hosting phishing pages with or without your knowledge, as a result of which your website could be identified as deceptive.
- Your website must be infected by malware or virus.
- Google could have noticed codes within your website linking to spammy or insecure websites.
- If your website has malware that steals users’ personal information, including credit card information, Google will mark your site as harmful.
Prevent Google From Displaying the “Deceptive Site Ahead” Warning on your Website
While it is not possible to remove the Deceptive Site Ahead warning immediately from your website, you can remove it with some technical effort, which could take some time. That is because you must first figure out the reason why Google has flagged your website and why you see this warning.
This warning could affect your hard-earned business reputation. So it is important to make sure Google does not display such a warning. Here are a few ways through which you can prevent this from happening.
1. Keep your website updated
One of the quickest and easiest ways to make sure your site does not get flagged by Google is by keeping your website up-to-date. Update your website to the latest version and also make sure the themes and plugins are up to date, as well.
Most software updates aim at correcting security concerns and will include other improvements too. When you use the older version of the software, you will be using an outdated version that could have critical security concerns. Hackers can easily exploit such vulnerabilities as a result of which Google could identify your website as deceptive.
2. Secure and change passwords
Hackers can easily steal passwords after they exploit vulnerabilities in your software and compromise your website. So make sure you change your passwords when you find that your site has been hacked. Ensure you change your FTP, cPanel passwords, and passwords of all admin accounts. Set unique and hard to guess passwords and not simple ones. This way, you can prevent hackers from compromising your website.
3. Have a Firewall to correct vulnerabilities
Once you remove the hack and secure your website, you might think your website is secure. But that is not true, as the vulnerability could still exist. If this goes unnoticed, your site can be infected again. So you need a firewall that could guard your website day and night. Firewalls will detect the patterns of your website’s visitors and will block hackers who visit your website with malicious intent.
How to Remove Deceptive Site Ahead Warning on Your Website
If you notice that Google has flagged your website as deceptive, you will need to fix it immediately. Here are the steps you will need to follow to fix the Deceptive Site Ahead warning.
- Understand what is the damage hackers have done to your website
- Find and remove the malware
- Submit a request to Google to review your website
- Take necessary steps to prevent such attacks in future
Understand what is the damage hackers have done to your website
You will need to figure out what damage has been done to your website. To know that, you will need to visit the Google Search Console and check the infected pages section. You can find that under the Security tab. Here, you can see the type of infection under “Detected Issues” under “Learn More.”
- The issue could be on a single page or in a group of pages
- You can check for issues in a specific blog post or in the entire blog
- The whole domain or the subdomain could be infected
Find and remove the malware
Now that you have found the infection, you will have to remove the malware. If the malware has infected your WordPress files, you will have to reinstall all the infected files to remove the malware. Similarly, if the issue is with the theme or the plugin, you will have to uninstall and reinstall them.
If your blog posts are infected by malicious code, you must clean up all the infected posts and check if there are any redirects or unwanted software downloads. You can try reinstalling everything and also check the files you cannot reinstall.
Additionally, you can go for programs like CodeGuard that can find and remove the malware for you. However, you will need to go for the best program that offers accurate results.
Submit a request to Google to review your website
After you have cleaned up your website, you can request Google to review your website. However, you will need to make sure no malware exists and that you have fixed the issue. If no malware exists, Google can remove the warning.
To request Google to review your website, visit the Google Search Console and go to the Security issues section, under Security and Manual Actions. You will need to check the box to tell Google that you have fixed all the issues. Once you submit a review request, Google will review your website again.
Remember, you will need to make sure your website is clear from malware and there are no traces of malware anywhere on your website. If there are signs of malware on your website, your request for review will be rejected. Your website will be flagged as “Repeat Offender” if your review request gets rejected by Google multiple times.
Follow the steps below to remove the “Deceptive Site Ahead” warning.
- To request a review, head to the “Security Issues” tab
- Click on “I have fixed these issues” and then click “Request a Review”.
- In the input field, type in the actions that were taken to remove the malware.
- Now, click on “Submit Request.”
- Head to the Manual Actions section and repeat the steps above.
Take necessary steps to prevent such attacks in future
Now that you know how malware can ruin the reputation of your website, it is important to take the required steps to make sure your website does not get infected in the future. As mentioned above, your website could be flagged as ‘Repeat Offender’ if your website gets infected often.
Read on to know how to prevent your website from getting infected by malware again.
- Make sure all the pages of your website are encrypted using an SSL certificate.
- Use website security tools like CodeGuard & DigiCert Secure Site Pro SSL to keep malware at bay. If yours is a WordPress website, this tool will also check for WordPress updates and make sure your website is up to date. This will help prevent hackers from making use of vulnerabilities and taking control of your website
Wrapping Up
The “Deceptive Site Ahead” security warning should not be taken easily as it could completely ruin the hard-earned reputation of your business. Immediately after you get to know that Google has flagged your website, take all the required steps to fix the error and remove the malware. Having a strong password, installing security plugins, updating plugins and themes as and when there are updates are a few ways through which you can prevent hackers from compromising your website. To know more about website security, we recommend checking out websitesecuritystore.com.