An SEO consultant shared on LinkedIn that one of his websites lost about half its traffic in just two weeks. The site had been hacked, with unwanted content added to it. Google then indexed this hacked content, which caused the site’s rankings — and traffic — to drop sharply.

“”Our website just suffered a massive traffic drop — from 2,000+ daily visits to about 1,100 — almost 50% wiped out in just two weeks, and it’s still going down as I write this post. The source: a hack that injected over 210,000 fake product pages, all indexed by Google and interlinked across several other compromised sites.””

He shared a chart showing the steep drop in search traffic during that short time.

He said he fixed the hack by removing the injected files, deleting the hacked pages, and taking all the usual steps. But he was disappointed that “the traffic drop continues and recovery feels uncertain.” Two weeks after the cleanup, he was still waiting to see the numbers go back up.

John Mueller from Google replied that these kinds of hacks can take time to recover from, which is why it’s important to keep websites updated and secure.

John also pointed out that the site’s traffic from other sources — like direct visits, social media, and referrals — was weak. He suggested improving those channels to help lessen the impact of the hack.

“”One way you can also take the bite out of situations like these (looking at your specific traffic graph in the post) is to build up other traffic channels – for example, to encourage people to come (back) to your site on their own.””

Getting hacked is never a pleasant experience, and most SEOs who’ve been in the field long enough have dealt with it at some point. Sometimes, you don’t even control the server’s security and just have to handle the aftermath. Recovery usually happens with time, but it’s hard to know if a hack will leave lasting damage. Hopefully, the site’s traffic will recover fully, even if it’s a slow process.

You can find the discussion on LinkedIn.