Shaun WhynachtBlue Cow Marketing Inc. · Founder of Blue Cow Marketing | Helping Small Businesses Clean Up Their Systems, Automate Their Marketing and Get Their Time Back

Domain Hacked? Here's What to Do! #CybersecurityTips

Name: Domain Hacked? Here's What to Do! #CybersecurityTips
Uploaded: 2025-08-28T17:39:52+00:00
Duration: 2 min 4 s
Channel: Shaun Whynacht
Description: In this instructional video, Shaun Whynacht walks viewers through a practical response plan for a compromised domain. He advises first purchasing a new…

28 Aug 2025 · 2 min

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2:04

In this instructional video, Shaun Whynacht walks viewers through a practical response plan for a compromised domain. He advises first purchasing a new, similar domain (e.g., the .ca or .com version of the original). He then explains how to verify the new domain in Google Search Console, locate and submit the site’s sitemap (typically at /sitemap.xml) to trigger re‑indexing. Next, he recommends reporting the hijacked domain to Google Safe Browsing via the bottom‑page form so Google can investigate and remove the malicious site from its listings. Finally, he stresses updating all external references—social media profiles, Google Business listings, and any other places the old domain appears—to signal to Google which site is legitimate, noting that full re‑indexing will take time. The video’s purpose is to give a concise, actionable checklist for restoring online presence after a domain hijack.

Chapters

Have you ever had your domain taken over by, let's say, a less than ideal website that you don't really want your clients to see? Well, I'm going to tell you the steps you need to take to mitigate that issue. Number 1, immediately go and get a new domain. In most cases, you're probably not going to get access to your domain back because these guys are smart and they change a lot of the settings that you're not going to be able to get it back. So unfortunately, We need to go shopping for a new domain. Who doesn't like to do that? Here's a tip. Try to find one that's very similar to the one you have. If you're lucky enough, maybe you're going to get the.ca or the.com version of your primary domain. Go ahead and register that. Next, you're going to want to go and verify that domain with Google Search Console. This is a great tool, and for those of you that don't know what it is, this is going to allow you to go in and tell Google to index the new website, and that's done using something called a sitemap. How do you know what your sitemap is? Great question. If you go to your domain and at the end put /sitemap.xml, you most likely will see that sitemap come up, and that's what you're going to need to submit in Google Search Console. Now, this is a great tool because this will then force Google to go and index your website again with the new domain.. And next, what you're gonna need to do is then go to Google Safe Browsing. Just search Google Safe Browsing, and there is on the very bottom a form where you can report the old domain so that Google will go investigate it and remove it. So update all the different social platforms you have, your Google Business listing, anywhere that the old domain was listed to the new one. Because that's going to help signal Google that this site is actually the legit one. And unfortunately, it's not going to index overnight. It's going to take some time for it to start to go through the whole process and show up online. But those are the steps you need to take if those pesky hackers take over your domain.