How To Fix Japanese Keyword Hack

Before fixing the problem you should first know what japanese keyword hack actually is?

The Japanese keyword hack is a spam-related hack that creates new pages or URLs with autogenerated Japanese text on your website.The hackers add themselves as a property owner in Search Console, to increase profits by manipulating your site's settings.This is a type of SEO spam in which hackers or bots inject your website with spammy keywords and links.

Refer the below screenshot to see how it looks like:

In the above screenshot you can see that all the URLs of domain.com(example) are showing up in Japanese language which means that the website has been affected with Japanese Keyword Hack.

How to identify that your website has been affected by the Japanese Keyword Hack?

Login to your cpanel and on the home page search for virus scanner function, once you find it click on it and it will take you to next page where you will see an option to scan your whole files. After scanning is done you will see an auto-generated report in which all the affected files will be listed, if you see that some of the files are affected with virus then most probably your website has been hacked or affected with Japanese Keyword Hack.

If you are unable to find virus scanner function in your cpanel then you may contact your web hosting provider and ask them to scan all the files and send you the report via email.

Go to google.com and in the search box type site:domain.com or site:domain.com Japan and click on search, google will show up all your indexed web pages or URLs, if you find Japanese URLs in search results it means that your website has been attacked with Japanese Keyword Hack.

Scan your domain at UnmaskParasites to check if there is any suspicious URLs or web pages on your domain.This free remote scanner will give you the report of your website within few seconds.

How does Japanese Keyword Hack affect your website?

Your website can get blacklisted by google

Google ensures safe browsing for all the users and if google detects that your website has been hacked or contains some spam links or pages, there are many chances that google will blacklist your website.

You can check that by scanning your domain on google safe browsing site status.

Your website can get blacklisted by renowned antivirus companies like Mcafee, Norton, etc.

If the users has installed Antivirus like Norton, Mcafee on their system, they might get a warning notification of dangerous website or deceptive website whenever they will try to visit your website.

Scan your domain at sucuri site check to check if your domain has been blacklisted by Norton, Mcafee, etc.

Your hosting account can get suspened

If your web hosting provider detects any kind of virus or malware in your files, there are many chances that you will lose your web hosting account if you fail to clean up the infected files within few hours or days.

Note: If you are using shared hosting it's crucial to clean the infection as soon as possible because there are more chances of getting your account suspended as few other websites are also hosted on the same server.

Your SEO rankings can get affected

The main motive of the hackers it to use your google rankings for their own benefit by injecting your existing URLs with spammy keywords in page titles or page description, and once the users click on that URL they will be redirected to some other spam website.Hackers basically do this to get more traffic on their website.

Your Brand's reputation can get affected

What if users visit your website and they get redirected to some other spammy or dangerous website or if they see something completely different in Japanese language, will they ever return back to your website?

The simple answer is 'NO', and this can affect your brand's reputation negatively.

What immediate actions has to be taken once you detect Japanese Keyword Hack in your website?

Remove search console account

If you have identified new owner in your google search console property, immediately unverify or remove the access of that owner from search console verification page.

Check some core files in your cpanel

Usually hackers inject some of the core files in your cpanel like index.php or .htaaccess file by adding some suspicious code or script which helps them in creating new spammy URLs using your domain name.

For cleaning up these files you can follow some simple steps explained on google web fundamentals.

Remove all spammy URLs

Go to google.com and search for site:yourdomain.com, in the search results you will see all the indexed URLs, open all the web pages and check if that particular page belongs to your original website and if not copy that URL and go to your google search console account, there you will see an option to submit URL removal request, paste that fake or spammy URL there and submit the request.After sometime google will automatically deindex that web page or url.

One by one submit the removal request for all those spammy Japanese URLs.

Restore clean full backup of your website

If you have a clean backup of your website i.e. backup which you took before this hack, then you are lucky because the clean up process will get easier for you.

To clean up your website using clean backup you need to contact your web hosting provider and ask them to reset your cpanel completely, it wouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes.

Now, it's time to restore the clean backup of your website and for that you may hire a professional web developer which might cost you around $100, the restoration process won't take more than 30-45 minutes.

Note: Follow this process only if you have full backup which will include backup of home directory, backup of database and backup of web mail accounts.

Now if you don't have a clean backup of your website then the clean up process may take several hours because you have to check all the files in your cpanel, hackers are very smart they can inject any of the file which you can't even think of.

We will advise you to hire a professional web developer for checking all the core files in your cpanel to ensure that all the infected files are cleaned up.

Note: If you or your developer fails to remove the infection from all the files, there are chances that your website will get hacked again.

Change your passwords

You should timely change your cpanel admin credentials, may be in a month or two, and always make a strong password by using the combination of letters, numbers and symbols.Don't include common words in your passwords and don't use same passwords which you have already used for some other application, passwords should never be reused throughout the web.

Update your plugins and software

You should never use out-dated version of plugins or software for your website because that can be a cause of the vulnerability, you should timely check for updates for all the applications, plugins or the framework you have used in your website.

Always aim to keep your server software and plugins up to date to prevent your website from getting hacked or infected again.

This article contains answers of the following questions:

1. What is Japanese Keyword Hack?
2. How to fix Japanese Keyword Hack?
3. How to identify Japanese Keyword Hack in your website?
4. How to prevent your website from getting attacked with Japanese Keyword Hack?
5. Why my website's URLs are showing up in Japanese language?
6. Why my hosting account is suspended?
7. How to restore full backup of website?