Last month there was buzz about something called the Japanese Keyword Hack. John Mueller commented about it on Redit in regards to the following call for help...

What is it?

The Japanese Keyword Hack, also known as the Japanese SEO Hack or Japanese SEO Spam, is a form of SEO spam that targets websites, particularly those using popular Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress.

The hack involves the creation of a large number of autogenerated pages with titles and content in Japanese language, often in randomly generated directory names. The hacked pages are then monetized using affiliate links to stores selling counterfeit goods. The hack is also designed to manipulate search engine results and can have a detrimental impact on a website's security and SEO rankings.

The hackers may also add themselves as property owners in the site's Search Console in order to manipulate the site's settings. This hack can lead to increased traffic and revenue for the hackers and is considered low-risk because they don't need to gain access to the website's backend or steal sensitive information, enabling the hackers to stay under the radar.

Doing a site: search for a website we know to be infected, we see what it looks like in the search results...

How to prevent it

To prevent the Japanese Keyword Hack o...