Fix URL Blacklist Virus – In a nutshell, URL blacklisting is a process where search engines and other authorities such as Google, Norton Safe Web, Bing, McAfee SiteAdvisor, etc. blacklist or remove a website URL from their respective index.
A website is more like a digital portfolio, the face of a business that represents you, your organization, products and services, and everything else on the most gigantic virtual setup i.e the Internet. If your URL is blacklisted by any of the search engines say Google, Bing, Norton Safe Web, or any other portal, believe us it’s not good news for your website’s online presence.
How Does a URL Get Blacklisted?
Search engines like Google are committed to offering a protected online experience to their users. To achieve this goal, search engines and other security authorities invest resources in detecting and flagging malicious websites that can pose potential online threats.
As search engines never want to lose their users on account of infected websites putting users’ computers in harm, they do not show such sites in the search results. There are so many reasons for which a website can be blacklisted.
It may include:
- Phishing schemes
- Trojan horses
- Pharma hacks
- Information scrapping
- Spams
- Downloading unwanted programs
- Unsafe plugins or libraries
So, if a website is found with such vulnerabilities, the browser displays security warnings and informs the visitors that it is unsafe to visit. It may show warnings like below if the site contains malware.
How to Fix Your Blacklisted URL
As I have explained earlier, there are a number of reasons why you can end up on the URL blacklist. So, depending on that reason, here are the things you should do.
1. Find the source of the problem
The first thing you want to do is to scan your website. You can do this by scanning your whole website (including database and files on the server) for potentially dangerous viruses, malware, and other threats.
Then, if found, remove the malware/virus while making sure you do not break your website. In other to do this, you can scan using Jetpack, WordFence e.t.c. You can also scan it via your cPanel or contact your hosting provider for help in finding the source of the problem (if your hosting provider offers such a service).
2. Remove Plugins/Themes From an Untrusted source (if any)
If you have any theme/plugin on your website that is not from the official WordPress directory (free ones) or from the official website of the themes develop (for premium ones), then remove them on your website.
3. Report Incorrect Warning
In a case, you got a warning on your Google search console and you are absolutely sure that no such thing is on your website (e.g. you get a warning for phishing page, you can report for incorrect phishing warning by here)
4. Submit for Review
If you successfully found and removed the source of the warning, the next thing is to notify Google that you have removed the suspicious page(s), virus, script, malware, or content from your website.
Once Google confirms that the issue is no longer found on your website, your URL will be removed from the blacklist.
- To do this, go to the “Security issues” tab on your Google search console.
- Select “I have fixed these issues”
- Click on “Request a review”
How to Protect your Website from the URL Blacklist
- Use trusted secure hosting providers.
- Switch to HTTPS.
- Implement Cloudflare (I personally use Cloudflare for so many things on this blog. You can use it to speed up your blog, get a Firewall feature for protection, get a free SSL certificate, and many more).
- Avoid using nulled plugins/themes.
- Use strong passwords, limit login attempts and hide your login page from the generic wp-websiteurl/login.php if you are using WordPress CMS.
- Scan your website regularly.
How to Remove Avast URL: Blacklist
If a URL has been infected with URL: blacklist virus, then you will probably get a “URL: blacklist” on Avast antivirus software.
If you are getting such notification, but you still want to visit the website anyway, then follow the procedures below to successfully remove the website from Avast URL: blacklist.
- Open the Avast antivirus software and click on the Menu.
- Click on the Settings tab, then click on Exceptions.
- Under this, click on ADD EXCEPTION.
- Enter the URL you wish to remove from the Avast URL: blacklist and save it.
How to Fix URL Blacklist Virus?
If any search engine or antivirus program blacklisted your website. Then here we will explain how to fix the URL blacklist Virus. The process to do that is threefold and very easy to deploy. All you need to do is follow this trail of steps:
Check the Website for Malware
The first thing you should do to fix infected with URL: blacklist on your website is to check the whole website for malicious files. There are some third-party websites on the intern that can help you do that very easily. Once you do this, then you can ascertain the source of blocking. After doing this, move on to the next method.
Remove the Malware from the Website
As of now, you know the culprit behind the blacklisting. To know how to fix the URL blacklist Virus, you need to clean the website. You use the same third-party apps or websites as you did in the previous steps to remove the malware.
Upload the Website
Now that there is no kind of malware or virus on the website, you can upload it. The users visiting the website will not see the URL: blacklist message from now on.
Also Read: How to Solve Google Drive waiting to Upload Error?