An SEO consultant recently shared a cautionary tale on LinkedIn about how devastating a website hack can be for search visibility. Within just two weeks, one of his sites lost nearly 50% of its organic traffic — plummeting from over 2,000 daily visits to around 1,100 — after hackers injected thousands of fake product pages into the site.
How the Hack Unfolded
The consultant explained that attackers created over 210,000 spammy product pages, which were quickly indexed by Google and interlinked across other compromised websites. As a result, Google began prioritizing the hacked content, causing the legitimate pages to lose visibility in search.
He shared a traffic chart showing the sharp decline, describing it as “almost 50% wiped out in just two weeks, and it’s still going down.”
Cleanup Efforts and Frustration
After detecting the breach, the consultant carried out a full cleanup:
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Deleted the injected files
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Returned the hacked URLs as 404/410 errors
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Took all the standard steps recommended after a hack
Despite these efforts, the decline in organic traffic continued. “The cleanups were done almost 2 weeks ago,” he wrote. “I’m still waiting to see the graph going back up. Recovery feels uncertain.”
Google’s Response
John Mueller of Google responded directly to the post, offering reassurance but also setting expectations.
“These kinds of hacks can take a bit of time to settle back down,” Mueller explained, stressing the importance of staying proactive with server security and regular updates.
He also noted another issue visible in the consultant’s analytics: reliance on Google traffic alone. Other channels such as direct, referral, and social were relatively weak. Mueller advised building up those sources as a buffer against SEO volatility:
“One way you can take the bite out of situations like these is to build up other traffic channels — for example, encouraging people to come (back) to your site on their own.”
The Takeaway
For SEOs and website owners, the story is a sobering reminder that:
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Hacks can have lasting effects on search performance, even after cleanup.
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Recovery in Google Search is not immediate and often takes weeks or months.
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Diversifying traffic sources beyond Google can help cushion against unexpected disruptions.
Getting hacked is one of the toughest challenges in SEO, and even with best practices in place, it’s not always in your control. The hope, as Mueller suggested, is that over time, the site regains its rankings and trust — but the path to recovery remains uncertain.
