Well, it happened today.
Google sent me a notice of malware infection – it has nothing to do with StreamingRadioGuide.com, but rather with a radio station owner in Hawaii whose server was infected. Google partly suspects my web server could be involved in deliberately or through negligence is causing malware infections. That’s the reason for this process the last 6 months of carefully rechecking all 14,000 or so radio station website URLs and investigating risk to find abandoned domains.
I’ve responded to their information and have my fingers crossed there is no long term damage to the reputation, but there is no way to be sure. Currently, about 600 people a day click here from Google. If Google bans you, you cease to exist. That’s just the way it is. Bada Bing!
The change I’ve made is to allow GoogleBot to follow the links to the radio stations, something which I deliberately didn’t permit as it has potential to distort popularity statistics and increase Google’s perception that I’m responsible for those 14,000 web sites. The result will likely be a whole bunch of additional reports as Google finds all the compromised radio station web servers. This process may be like chemotherapy – Google may conclude that I’m a conduit for lots of malware infections until radio stations clean up their act. If this helps create more responsible radio station web sites, that’s a good thing. Hopefully, the patient doesn’t die first.