How to Fix “Dangerous site” Warning on your Site

Managing websites can be challenging especially when issues are unidentified or unclear to understanding the right steps to take in getting it resolved.

There are several issues, but one of the most frustrating issues on a domain is the issue of browsers blacklisting domains, which comes with warnings like “Dangerous site” warning.

Why does “Dangerous site” warning display?

The “Dangerous site” warning is usually as a result of a particular domain being involved in installing or use of malicious software or revealing things like your password, phone, or credit card number – That’s how Google perceives it. Google sees such sites to be dangerous and harmful to users visiting the site.

So Google alerts the public about these sites by displaying a warning message.

This is one issue we encountered. But the ironic part of the experience is that this domain was newly purchased and WordPress was also newly installed on it. So, it’s possible that perhaps the initial domain owner was engaged in activities against Google’s policy which may have led to abandoning the domain to expire since it’s already blacklisted.

Our goal is to operate a successful website and to use the domain judiciously for the benefit of ours and the public – while ensuring all activities comply with Google’s policies. Therefore, fixing the “Dangerous Site” warning would be the best option for us.

So, here we go… below are the processes taken to get the “Dangerous Site” warning resolved once and for all.

Steps taken to resolve this issue

Contacting my Host:

The first step was to contact my hosting provider. I explained to my host what happened, but the response wasn’t the solution to it. First, they (my host) had to clear their part by explaining that the server was running fine and the domain files were intact. I was further advised to back-up my files and re-install my site application (WordPress) or contact Google.

They further explained that the domain may have been blacklisted in the care of the previous user in the past.

With this information, I could focus on the next steps in resolving the issue once and for all.

Remember, the domain in question doesn’t have any content or pages on it – it’s a fresh domain.

Contacting Google:

My second step was to contact Google to explain the issue and the scenario that led me up to this point. You might wonder how to contact Google about a website issue.

The fastest way to contact Google about website issues is through Google Search Console. Well, depending on the nature of the issue or challenges.

Step 1: I started by adding the website to the webmaster tool.
We have a content page already that shows how to website to webmaster tool to get indexed and rank fast on search engines.

Step 2: A warning notification is displayed immediately after the domain is added to the Google webmaster tool.
“Security Issues: 1 Issue detected >> Full Report”

You can either click on the “Full report” or click on the “Security Issues” Tab on the left side of the webmaster tool page to see the complete report of the issue(s) detected.

Usually, on the page, you should see the URLs of your pages that are affected or causing the issues Google has detected.

Moving on to resolve the issue:

Step 3: In my case here, as explained already this is a newly launched website and there are no URLs created or published yet. But in your case, you may find out the list of URLs that are affected. In that case, simply log on to your admin page and delete the URL(s) with its contents. or do thorough editing on the page and make changes to the URL too.

Step 4: After ensuring that your actions to fix the issue detected are done correctly, click on “REQUEST REVIEW”.

Step 5: Check the box “All issues were fixed”. Then below it, you’re expected to write extensively the actions you took to fix the issues detected. For example, if you deleted or edited the page and URL, your write-up sample could go as;

“Hello, Good day,
Thanks for the issues you’ve detected on my website. I take the report very important as I strive to provide relevant information (products and services) to my audience. Having confirmed the issues detected, I’m pleased to inform you that I have taken swift action to get those issues resolved, to enable the site to align with your policy again.
I started by scanning through my site pages and found those affected pages (as stated in your report), The page(s) were isolated and thoroughly edited (or deleted). Then I rescanned the whole pages/URLs on my site to ensure there weren’t any deceptive or other security issues on my site again.
Please, kindly rescan my site again, review and re-update your security issue report. I will be happy to see this issue quickly reviewed again.
I will keep ensuring that my activities align according to your policy, as my way of contributing relevantly to my audience and search engine community in general. Thanks.”

As for me, my approach was different because nothing was fixed by me as no issues were detected, I only needed to to go re-crawl my website again to update its report.

Step 6: Click on “Submit request”.

Step 7: At times, you may get an email from Google alerting you that it has received and processed your site security review. Then later on, if everything was cleared (resolved perfectly by you), another email will come as;

“Google has received and processed your security review request. Google systems indicated that your website URL no longer contains links to harmful sites or downloads. The warnings visible to users are being removed from your site. This may take a few hours to happen.”

Step 8: Confirm that your webmaster no longer shows any issues, by reloading the “Security & Manual Action” page.

Conclusion

Ensure that your website URL is not associated with deceptive websites or software. Refrain from reviewing such content on your site; instead, focus on incorporating anchor links. Additionally, avoid obtaining backlinks from such websites. Always review any external links you include in your content. Periodically check Google’s webmaster tool Security & Manual Action page for any identified issues. However, such issues rarely occur when you are cautious about the content you promote on your site.