[Solved] Unwanted Japanese Keywords in Search Results

What is the Japanese keyword Hack?

The Japanese keyword hack is a type of website hack where attackers create spammy pages on a website with Japanese words and phrases, often using popular keywords to improve search engine rankings. If you’ve been affected by this hack, here are some steps you can take to fix it:

It’s important to take action as soon as possible to fix a Japanese keyword hack. The longer the hack remains on your website, the more damage it can do to your search engine rankings and reputation.

Common Symptoms of Japanese Keyword Hack

Suspicious Users have access to Your Webmaster tools

Log into the webmaster tools of your website and check if some unknown users have got access to your website.

If you found any accounts that are doubtful, remove them immediately

How to fix Japanese keyword hack

1. Identify the hacked pages: Use tools like Google Search Console or other website scanning tools to identify the pages that have been hacked. Look for pages that have spammy content, irrelevant Japanese text, or pages that redirect users to other websites.
2. Remove the hacked pages: Once you’ve identified the hacked pages, delete them from your website. If you can’t remove them, you can use a “no-index” tag in the page’s HTML to tell search engines not to index them.
3. Change your passwords: Change your website’s passwords for all users, including admins and contributors. Use strong passwords that are difficult to guess and include a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols.
4. Update your website software: Make sure your website software is up-to-date with the latest security patches and updates. This will help prevent future hacks.
5. Review your website security: Check your website’s security settings and make sure they’re set up correctly. Use a security plugin or service to scan your website for vulnerabilities and malware.
6. Request a review from Google: If your website has been flagged by Google as being hacked, request a review from Google to remove the warning. Once your website has been cleaned up and secured, submit a request to Google to reindex your website.

How to avoid this in future

Find the root cause, is your website hacked?

There can be many reasons for japanese keyword hack on your website but some of the obvious reasons are as menionted below –

1. Use of Cracked Themes and Plugins
2. Insecure file permissions & ownership
3. Website hosted on Less Secure Server

#1 Test the Website on Succuri Sitecheck

#2 Test Website on Search Engine Simulators

It is observed quite often, the victim website appears normal when opened in browsers. But it appears completely different when crawlers crawl your website.

This makes the problem even more difficult to figure out what’s happening.

You can use Search Engine Simulators to check how your website appears when crawlers Googlebot crawls your website. Below are a few search engine simulators that you can use to check –

https://view.hugo-decoded.be/

https://botsimulator.com/

If you notice something abnormal, like a website different from what you expected, get this rectified.

#3 Check for Security Headers on Your Website

Use this tool to check security headers of your website

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