Google Ranking Restored

This is a follow up post to my “Sudden Drop In Google Ranking post.

This morning, I checked the ranking of the website in question. To my surprise, the site had again ranked number 4 in the Google Search Engine Results. This was most definitely good news. In fact, all key phrases now ranked on page one of the Google SERPs.

I can only hope this persists. So, what did we do? Here is a short list:

– Noticed the website had dropped in Google ranking.
– Took a unique phrase from the website homepage and searched Google using quotes, “like this.”
– Found a direct copy of the website and discovered it had been “Proxy Hijacked.”
– Found IP address of website that Proxy Hijacked our website and blocked it using the .htaccess file.
– Submitted a “Reconsideration Request” to Google.

After about a week and a half, our website had regained its ranking in Google.

I read a long article about Proxy Hijacking and it mentioned that Google had fixed the problem. If this was the case with my friend’s website, this certainly isn’t true. While I can not be totally sure Proxy Hijacking caused this case of Google ranking loss, the facts seem to lead down this path.

What is my advice to you? Check either Google or Copyscape once a month to see if someone has taken text or Proxy Hijacked your website.