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Is your site on a blacklist?
Enter your address to check it against Google Safe Browsing, the list behind Chrome's red “Dangerous site” page, and VirusTotal, which shows whether antivirus and security companies flag it. Each check opens the list owner's own page, so the answer comes from them. Below, find the warning you are seeing to learn who controls it and how it comes off.
Which warning are you seeing?
Each warning comes from a different list, and each list owner has its own way of taking it down. Cleaning the site comes first for all of them.
A red "Dangerous site", "Deceptive site ahead" or "The site ahead contains malware" page
- Where it shows
- Chrome, Firefox and Safari, before your site loads
- Who controls it
- Google Safe Browsing
- How it comes off
- Once the site is clean, request a review in Google Search Console under Security issues. Google can also re-check flagged sites on its own, but a review request is the dependable route.
"This site may harm your computer" under your site in Google results
- Where it shows
- Google search results
- Who controls it
- Google Safe Browsing
- How it comes off
- The same review as the red browser page: clean the site, then request a review in Search Console.
"This site may be hacked" under your site in Google results
- Where it shows
- Google search results
- Who controls it
- Google Search
- How it comes off
- Once the spam or changed pages are gone, request a review in Search Console. Visitors can still reach the site while the label shows.
An email or Search Console report saying "Security issues detected" or "Hacked content detected"
- Where it shows
- Your inbox and Google Search Console
- Who controls it
- Google Search Console
- How it comes off
- The report lists sample pages. Clean every affected page, then use Request review in the same report.
"This site has been reported as unsafe" on a red page in Microsoft Edge
- Where it shows
- Microsoft Edge and Windows
- Who controls it
- Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, a separate list from Google’s
- How it comes off
- Once the site is clean, use the link on Edge's warning page to report that the site is safe. Microsoft reviews it separately from Google.
Your antivirus or a customer’s (Norton, McAfee, Avast, Bitdefender and others) blocks the site
- Where it shows
- Inside that antivirus program only
- Who controls it
- Each security company keeps its own list
- How it comes off
- VirusTotal shows which companies flag the site. Once it is clean, each one has its own form to dispute the listing.
Your host suspended the account, or your site shows an "account suspended" page
- Where it shows
- Every visitor, everywhere
- Who controls it
- Your hosting company
- How it comes off
- The host lifts it once the malware is gone, usually after its own re-scan. Their email or ticket says what they need.
"Not secure" in the address bar, or "Your connection is not private"
- Where it shows
- Every browser
- Who controls it
- Nobody: this is not a blacklist. The browser cannot confirm your security certificate.
- How it comes off
- Renewing or fixing the certificate clears it straight away; there is no review.
Questions, answered
- How do I know if Google has blacklisted my website?
- Look your site up on Google's Safe Browsing status page (the first check above). "No unsafe content found" means Google is not flagging it. If you have Google Search Console, its Security issues report is the definitive answer and lists the affected pages.
- How long does it take to get off a blacklist?
- It depends on the list owner, not on us or you. Google and Microsoft review a site after it is clean and a review is requested, and each antivirus company runs its own process. What you control is cleaning the site properly first, because a failed review means waiting for another.
- Can a site be flagged by mistake?
- Yes, especially by a single antivirus company. When one or two tools flag a site and everything else, including Google, says it is clean, a false alarm is likely. When Google flags it, there is almost always something real on the site.
- Does a security warning hurt my search rankings?
- It hurts traffic straight away, because most people turn back at a red warning or skip a result labelled as hacked. Rankings generally return once the site is clean and the warning is gone, though spam pages a hacker added can take a while to drop out of Google.
Flagged?
Hacked site cleanup, then help getting the warning reviewed
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