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WordPress Guide → SEO → Spam Malware
SEO spam: how to clean and protect your WordPress site
Few things tank a website’s reputation faster than hidden spam links or malicious content. SEO spam attacks can quietly hijack your site, hurt rankings, and even get you blacklisted. Knowing how to spot and stop them is essential for keeping your WordPress site safe and trustworthy.
Let’s get into it.
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What is SEO spam?
SEO spam (also known as “spamdexing”) is when hackers inject unwanted content, links, or keywords into your website to manipulate search engine results. Instead of building rankings the right way, attackers try to trick Google into boosting their pages by exploiting your site’s authority.
In WordPress, this usually means hidden links, fake pages, or code injections placed inside your theme files, database, or plugins. Visitors often don’t notice at first because the spam may be tucked away in your site’s backend or displayed only to search engines.
Hackers target WordPress sites because they’re widely used, and vulnerable plugins, themes, or weak passwords make easy entry points. Once in, the attacker benefits from your domain’s trust while you’re left with security risks, SEO penalties, and angry users.
Types of SEO spam
SEO spam can take different forms depending on what attackers want to achieve. The most common types include:
- Pharma hacks: Spammy ads or pages promoting counterfeit pharmaceuticals, often hidden inside your posts or pages.
- Japanese keyword hack: Injected content that creates fake pages in Japanese, usually to sell knockoff products.
- Hidden links: Links buried in your site’s code or footer that direct traffic to malicious or spam websites.
- Injected ads: Unwanted banners, popups, or affiliate links added without your knowledge.
- Fake redirects: Pages that look normal but secretly send visitors to spam or phishing sites.
How SEO spam works
SEO spam works by exploiting vulnerabilities in your WordPress site to gain access. Hackers usually break in through outdated plugins, weak login credentials, or poorly secured hosting environments. Once inside, they inject malicious code into theme files, the database, or even core WordPress files.
This code generates spammy pages, redirects, or hidden links. Attackers often use cloaking techniques—showing different content to human visitors than to search engines—so you may not notice the problem right away.
Search engines, however, pick up the spam and start associating your site with low-quality or malicious content.
Consequences of SEO spam
SEO spam carries real risks.
- Search engine penalties: Google may lower your rankings or blacklist your site entirely.
- Damaged reputation: Visitors who see spam or get redirected won’t trust your site again.
- Lost revenue: Ecommerce sales and ad income drop when traffic and trust decline.
- Security risks: Spam often opens the door to more serious malware infections.
How to identify SEO spam on your WordPress site
SEO spam is sneaky, but you can catch it early if you know what to look for:
- Search your domain name in Google and see if strange titles, pages, or keywords appear.
- Scan your site with a malware scanner like Wordfence Security or Solid Security.
- Check your WordPress dashboard for unfamiliar users, plugins, or posts.
- Inspect your theme files for suspicious code or iframes.
- Review your Google Search Console for warnings about hacked content.
How to remove SEO spam from your WordPress site
Once you confirm SEO spam, cleaning it up takes patience and thorough work:
- Back up your site before making changes, so you can restore if needed.
- Scan with a security plugin such as Wordfence or iThemes Security to detect infected files.
- Manually clean hacked files by comparing them to fresh versions from the WordPress repository. Delete or replace anything suspicious.
- Check your database for injected spam content, especially in wp_posts and wp_options tables.
- Reinstall themes and plugins from trusted sources to remove tampered files.
- Update everything—WordPress core, themes, and plugins—to patch vulnerabilities.
- Request a Google review in Search Console if your site was flagged as hacked.
How to avoid SEO spam on your WordPress site
Prevention is much easier than cleanup. Protect your site with these steps:
- Keep WordPress, plugins, and themes updated at all times.
- Use strong, unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication.
- Install a reputable security plugin with firewall and malware scanning.
- Limit admin access and delete unused accounts.
- Use a hosting provider with strong WordPress security measures.
- Regularly back up your site so you can restore quickly if attacked.
SEO spam FAQs
Next steps
SEO spam can wreck your search rankings, traffic, and credibility if left unchecked. By learning how it works, how to spot it, and how to protect your WordPress site, you stay one step ahead of attackers.
Start by running a full scan of your website today and setting up preventative security measures. That way, you’ll be confident your site is clean, safe, and trusted by visitors and search engines alike.
And review your hosting provider’s safety record. Many WordPress users start with budget hosting options and later migrate to more secure hosting later—and that’s where Liquid Web comes in. Our WordPress hosting platform is known for security. In fact, we’re one of the few that are rated for several compliance standards.
And if you don’t want to deal with server management and maintenance, our fully managed hosting for WordPress is the best in the industry. Our team are not only server IT experts, but WordPress hosting experts as well. Your server couldn’t be in better hands.
Click through below to explore all of our hosting for WordPress options, or chat with a WordPress expert right now to get answers and advice.
Additional resources
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Best SEO plugins for WooCommerce sites →
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Alexis Wisniewski is an Organic SEO Manager at Liquid Web. She has been leading SEO, primarily for technology brands, since 2013, specializing in SEO content and strategy. When she’s not reading and writing online, she’s usually reading and writing offline, or spending time with her family in the Chicagoland suburbs.