SERP Analysis) Use the site search operator] to perform a Google search and look for landing pages containing spam or malware in the SERPs. You can also add the search operator [inurl:keyword], replacing “keyword” with red flag terms such as “online games”, “gambling”, “porn”, etc. . Although Google usually displays a warning in the SERPs when it detects a hacked site, not all content may be flagged. Read here for a more complete overview of a hacked site. 4. Blacklist Status Your domain may be blacklisted if there is a history of sending spam, which in turn may cause your mail server IP address to be blocked. You can
check the blacklist status of the domain you are looking to acquire using Site Securi. 5. Internal and external links A telltale sign of domain misuse is link manipulation. A compromised domain may use overly specific anchor text phrases to link to other jewelry photo editing service spammy content. In some cases, when hackers want to remain even more elusive, the anchor text will remain unchanged, making link manipulation even harder to detect. Luckily, you can use a tool like Screaming Frog, which lets you crawl up to 500 URLs for free. Once in the program, click on the “
Outlinks” tab at the bottom to see what a specific URL links to. When reviewing backlinks , you can use a tool like Majestic to get a snapshot of the backlink profile. From there, you can dive deep into other off-page factors, such as which referring domains are sending the most backlinks to the site. You can even be as specific as seeing which TLDs (top-level domains) your backlinks come from. For example, if you have a website based in the United States and you notice that 90% of your backlinks come from Taiwan, this may be concerning.