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Google detected harmful content
Hi, I have had a new website online for a few weeks. It has never appeared on google search results yet. But now, Google Search Console tells me this (it didn’t use too):
`Google has detected harmful content on some of your site’s pages. We recommend that you remove it as soon as possible`. The description of the problem: `These pages attempt to trick users into doing something dangerous, such as installing unwanted software or revealing personal information.`. But no urls are given, just this: “Sample URLs: N/A”.
Google Transparency Report tells me that `The site [my website] contains harmful content, including pages that: Try to trick visitors into sharing personal info or downloading software`. I did have a contact form (that I removed now), but it was hidden with css, because I haven’t implemented the back-end yet. But so what? Is it not allowed to ask personal info on a website? Maybe it is because it was hidden (although I don’t know if google scans css) that made google believe I’m tricking users.
sitecheck.sucuri.net tells me that there isn’t any problems with the website.
It is a simple landing page for a rental holiday cottage, so I have photos of it on the website, and these photos are also on other rental platforms’ websites. So maybe Google thinks these images were “stolen” from these other websites? This seems unlikely, but I try to think of every possibility.
I don’t save any cookies on the website.
Does anyone have any ideas of where the problem might come from?
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1 Reply
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Hiding any text making it invisible with CSS is not favored by google. Maybe… because u hid an entire contact form google it did something, or u hid enough text for it to trigger the warning.
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Your guess is better than what ours could be
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I wouldn’t use a free online checker, but rather a paid for one you run locally.
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Thanks for your responses, I’ll try to get a hold of someone at google to reevaluate it.
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Can you share your website?
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Have you checked your filesystem for any new files that may have appeared?
Sounds more like you’ve been hacked and someone may have uploaded something or altered an existing file
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Recently faced similar issue, it for a WordPress website.
The form was not hidden, but the GSC was pointing to the contact us page as the issue.
Removed the form and submitted it to Google for review.
In 2 days site was back to normal
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