Getting Removed from Google Safe Browsing and Email Blacklists

Malware warnings in browsers and emails silently disappearing into spam folders usually point to the same root problem: your website, server or IP reputation has been compromised. For many businesses this appears first as a red Google Safe Browsing warning page, or as customers saying “we never received your invoice email”. At dchost.com we see the same pattern again and again: a hacked site injects malicious code, then the same vulnerability or weak password is abused to send spam, and within hours both your domain and IP start appearing on blacklists.

The good news is that you can recover. Getting removed from Google Safe Browsing and email blacklists is not about sending a single form and waiting; it’s about proving that the underlying problems are fixed. In this article we’ll walk through a practical, step-by-step approach: confirming the scope of the incident, thoroughly cleaning hacked sites, stopping abuse on your mail server, requesting delisting correctly, and hardening your hosting so it doesn’t happen again.

What Google Safe Browsing and Email Blacklists Actually Are

Google Safe Browsing in plain language

Google Safe Browsing is a reputation system used by Chrome, Firefox, Safari and other browsers. It maintains lists of URLs that are known or suspected to be:

• Hosting malware (file downloads, drive‑by exploits, trojans)
• Involved in phishing (fake login pages, payment pages, etc.)
• Serving unwanted software or deceptive content

When your domain or a specific URL is on that list, visitors see a large red interstitial warning (“Deceptive site ahead” or “The site ahead contains malware”). Search results may also show warnings and your organic traffic can drop dramatically.

Safe Browsing data is consumed by many services, not just Google Search. That’s why cleaning up one server and “waiting for Google” is not enough; you must fully remove the malicious content and then explicitly request a review.

Email blacklists and RBLs

Email blacklists (often called RBLs – Realtime Blackhole Lists) are databases of IP addresses and sometimes domains that have been observed sending spam, malware or policy‑violating email. Receiving mail servers query these lists when deciding whether to accept, tag as spam, or reject a message.

Common symptoms that you’re on one or more RBLs:

• Lots of bounce messages with codes like 550, 554 or 521 mentioning “blocked”, “listed” or an RBL name
• Customers saying they never receive your emails to major providers
• Sudden drop in open rates for newsletters or transactional emails

Unlike Google Safe Browsing, there’s no single central email blacklist. Each RBL has its own criteria, listing and delisting process. That’s why email reputation recovery must be systematic and evidence‑based.

Typical incident chain: from hacked site to full reputation damage

In many real‑world cases we see a sequence like this:

1. An outdated CMS (often WordPress, Joomla, or a custom PHP app) is compromised via a plugin or weak password.
2. Attacker uploads a web shell or backdoor to maintain ongoing access.
3. Malicious JavaScript or iframes are injected into pages, leading to a Google Safe Browsing flag.
4. The same server or account is used to send large volumes of spam via PHP mail(), SMTP authentication, or compromised email credentials.
5. IP and sometimes domain are listed on multiple email blacklists; deliverability collapses.

Recovering properly means addressing every link in that chain, not just the visible warnings.

Step 1: Confirm the Problem and Map the Scope

Check if your site is on Google Safe Browsing

Before changing anything, you need an objective picture of what’s wrong. For Google Safe Browsing:

• Open Google Search Console for your property and check the Security Issues section. Google will categorize issues such as malware, deceptive pages, or hacked content and provide sample URLs.
• If you don’t have Search Console set up yet, add and verify your domain as soon as possible. It’s the main channel Google uses to communicate security problems.
• Use Google’s public transparency report to check reputation of specific URLs if needed.

Check if your IP or domain is on email blacklists

Next, evaluate your email reputation. You’ll need to check both the sending IP address and the sending domain (the one in the From: header and envelope sender).

• Use reputable multi‑RBL lookup tools to see which lists include your IP or domain.
• Read recent bounce messages (NDRs). They often include direct links or identifiers to the blacklist that blocked your mail.
• Log into big mailbox provider postmaster tools (where applicable) to see complaint rates, spam trap hits, and reputation dashboards.

If you’re not yet comfortable reading SMTP codes and bounce messages, our articles on SMTP error codes and bounce messages and on email sender reputation recovery and IP warm-up provide deeper background.

Identify all affected assets

To clean and request delisting effectively, you must know the full scope:

• All domains and subdomains on the server
• All websites and applications (WordPress, custom apps, staging sites, old forgotten apps)
• All email accounts and mailing scripts that can send email from this IP

It’s common to find that only one site is obviously infected, but another neglected subdomain is quietly hosting phishing pages and keeping your domain on Safe Browsing lists. Assume nothing; verify everything.

Step 2: Clean the Hacked Website Properly

1. Contain first, then investigate

Before you start editing files, slow down the damage:

• Temporarily disable file uploads and any infected plugins or themes you already recognize.
• If possible, place the affected site behind a simple maintenance page while you work. Use a 503 status code to avoid SEO penalties, as described in our guide on maintenance windows and downtime pages.
• Change all relevant passwords: hosting panel, FTP/SFTP, SSH, database, CMS admin logins, email accounts.

2. Take a forensic backup

Before cleaning, take a full backup of files and databases for investigation. This might sound counter‑intuitive, but it’s crucial if you later need to:

• Search for the original entry point or backdoor pattern
• Prove to another provider or a security team how the compromise occurred
• Recover content that you accidentally delete during cleanup

Keep this backup offline and clearly labeled as “infected – do not restore directly”.

3. Scan and compare files

Effective cleanup is about precision, not just running an antivirus and hoping for the best. For PHP‑based sites (including WordPress, Drupal, custom apps), a thorough approach usually includes:

• Running server‑side malware scanners to detect known signatures and suspicious patterns.
• Comparing your CMS core files and official plugins/themes against clean copies to detect modifications.
• Searching for typical malicious patterns: eval() shells, base64‑encoded payloads, strange .php files in upload directories or cache folders.

We’ve published a detailed guide to cleaning up hacked PHP websites that walks through backdoor detection, scanning and safe migration in depth. The same principles apply whether you’re on shared hosting, VPS or a dedicated server.

4. Remove malware, then upgrade everything

Once you’ve identified infected files:

• Delete malware and backdoors completely rather than trying to comment out malicious code.
• Replace modified core files and plugins/themes with fresh copies from trusted sources.
• Update your CMS, extensions, and any custom code dependencies to the latest secure versions.

For WordPress specifically, it’s often faster and safer to:

• Remove all core files except wp-config.php and the wp-content directory.
• Upload a clean copy of WordPress of the same major version.
• Reinstall only the plugins and themes you actually use, from trusted repositories.

If your WordPress site has been compromised repeatedly, our article on what to do if your WordPress site keeps getting hacked covers long‑term hardening beyond basic cleanup.

5. Clean the database

Attackers often inject malicious content into the database, not only into files. Check for:

• Injected JavaScript in posts, pages, widgets or options tables
• Unknown admin users or elevated roles in user tables
• Malicious redirects or iframes stored in configuration or settings rows

Use your CMS or SQL queries carefully to strip malicious content. Always back up the database immediately before making manual edits.

6. Verify that the site is genuinely clean

Before requesting removal from Google Safe Browsing:

• Rescan files and database to ensure malware signatures are gone.
• Visit a sample of pages (including those listed as problematic in Search Console) in an isolated or test browser profile.
• Check that no unexpected iframes, popups or redirects occur.

Only when you’re confident the site is truly clean should you proceed to the review request.

Step 3: Stop Email Abuse and Repair IP / Domain Reputation

1. Find how spam is being sent

If your IP is on email blacklists, you must demonstrate that spam has stopped and the root cause is fixed. First, identify the sending vector:

• Compromised CMS or script using PHP’s mail() function.
• Compromised mailbox credentials (IMAP/SMTP logins stolen and used from remote IPs).
• Misconfigured forms or scripts allowing open relaying or header injection.
• Intentionally high‑volume campaigns sent without proper list hygiene or opt‑in.

Check your mail logs for unusual patterns: massive bursts of messages, strange sender addresses, or logins from countries/locations that don’t match your users.

2. Lock down accounts and scripts

Once you know—or strongly suspect—how spam was sent:

• Immediately change all email passwords, especially those used for SMTP authentication.
• Disable or restrict any suspicious PHP scripts or contact forms.
• Enforce strong password policies and, where possible, two‑factor authentication for email panel access.
• Rate‑limit outbound email per account and per domain to minimize damage if something breaks again.

3. Fix email authentication and DNS

Strong email authentication doesn’t just help deliverability; it also shows blacklist operators that you take abuse seriously. Make sure you have correctly configured:

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework) listing only legitimate sending servers.
• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) signing outbound mail with your domain’s key.
• DMARC monitoring and gradually enforcing alignment between SPF/DKIM and the visible From: domain.
• Reverse DNS (PTR) for your sending IP, matching the hostname used in your mail server’s HELO/EHLO.

If you’re not sure where to start, our step-by-step guide to SPF, DKIM, DMARC and rDNS covers the entire setup with practical examples.

4. Decide whether to keep or change the IP

A common question is: “Do I need a new IP to fix this?” The answer depends on how bad the damage is:

• If your IP is lightly listed on a couple of minor RBLs and the abuse window was short, you can often recover on the same IP by fixing the issue and requesting delisting.
• If your IP has a history of heavy spam, appears on many serious lists, or was abused over a long period, a controlled migration to a new IP may be faster—provided you don’t copy the same misconfigurations.

At dchost.com, when we assign dedicated IPs for sending, we combine that with reputation monitoring and gradual warm‑up, not just a raw IP change. A new IP without behavioural changes quickly gets dirty again.

5. Warm up and rebuild trust

Once abuse is stopped and authentication is correct, start sending again slowly:

• Begin with low‑volume, high‑engagement traffic such as real transactional emails and account notifications.
• Pause all marketing blasts and questionable lists until your reputation metrics stabilize.
• Monitor spam complaint rates, bounces and postmaster dashboards closely.

Structured warm‑up and reputation repair is a topic of its own; our dedicated guide to dedicated IP warm‑up and email reputation management goes into detailed daily sending schedules and monitoring practices.

Step 4: Request Review and Delisting the Right Way

Removing your site from Google Safe Browsing

Once your site is clean and hardened:

1. Log into Google Search Console for your affected property.
2. Go to Security Issues and review all items listed. Make sure each described issue has actually been addressed (e.g. infected URLs fixed, phishing content removed).
3. Click “Request a review” and provide a clear, honest explanation of what you found and what you changed. Mention:

• How the site was compromised (if you know)
• What you removed and updated (files, plugins, database entries)
• What you changed to prevent recurrence (updates, passwords, hardening, WAF, etc.)

Google typically reviews within a few days, but it can vary. If they reject the request, they usually provide additional hints on what’s still wrong. Treat rejections as feedback that your cleanup missed something—not as a purely bureaucratic barrier.

Requesting removal from email blacklists

Each RBL has its own rules. Some common patterns:

• Automatic expiry: A few lists automatically remove IPs after a certain period of clean behaviour (no spam observed). In that case, your job is to stop abuse and wait.
• Self‑service delisting forms: Many RBLs provide a web form where you must confirm that the issue is fixed and agree to their policies.
• Manual review: Serious or repeated abuse may require a detailed explanation or interaction with the list operators.

Effective delisting requests share the same qualities:

• They acknowledge the problem instead of denying it (“We found a compromised CMS sending spam via PHP mail() between date X and Y”).
• They list concrete fixes: patched software, disabled scripts, improved authentication, rate limits.
• They describe preventive measures now in place.

Keep a simple internal checklist of which lists you have contacted, dates of requests, and responses. This helps you avoid duplicate or inconsistent appeals.

When delisting fails repeatedly

If, after several weeks of clean logs and multiple honest delisting requests, a particular RBL still refuses to remove your IP, evaluate:

• How influential that list actually is in your traffic (some are barely used anymore).
• Whether you can adjust routing to send email for the most sensitive destinations from a different clean IP with proper warm‑up.
• Whether any third‑party systems or forwarding chains are still causing spam to appear from your IP or domain.

In practice, focusing on the major mailbox providers and widely‑used RBLs solves the vast majority of deliverability issues; chasing obscure lists forever is rarely worth it.

Long‑Term Prevention: Hardening, Monitoring and Architecture

Harden your applications and hosting stack

After recovering from an incident, you have a unique opportunity: you now know exactly where your weak points were. Turn that into structural improvements:

• Keep CMS cores, plugins and themes up to date with a proper update schedule and staging tests.
• Remove unused plugins, themes and old test sites; every extra application is another attack surface.
• Use least‑privilege file permissions and disable unnecessary PHP functions where possible.
• Enable a Web Application Firewall (WAF) either at the server level (e.g. ModSecurity with OWASP rules) or at the edge via a CDN/WAF service.
• Disable password‑based SSH logins and use keys instead if you manage your own VPS.

For WordPress environments on shared hosting, our article on WordPress security on shared hosting with WAF, 2FA and backups provides a very practical hardening checklist.

Separate responsibilities where it makes sense

Mixing everything on a single shared account or server—public website, admin panels, bulk email, APIs—amplifies the impact of any compromise. Where your budget and scale allow, consider:

• Separating staging/dev from production so untested code doesn’t run on the live domain.
• Using different sending domains or subdomains for marketing and transactional email, with separate reputations.
• Isolating critical business apps on their own VPS or dedicated server, with stricter network rules.

At dchost.com we often help customers evolve from “everything in one shared account” to a more robust mix of shared hosting, VPS and sometimes colocation for core systems, depending on their growth stage.

Monitor continuously instead of waiting for the next crisis

Being surprised by a Safe Browsing warning or a flood of email bounces usually means monitoring was missing or too shallow. Minimum recommended layers:

• Security monitoring: File integrity checks, malware scanning, alerts on new admin users or modified core files.
• Log monitoring: Alerts on unusual spikes in outbound email volumes, PHP errors, or access from anomalous IP ranges.
• DNS and domain monitoring: Notifications on DNS record changes, new subdomains, expiring domains and SSL certificates.
• Email reputation monitoring: Regular RBL checks and use of postmaster dashboards.

Several of our other resources—such as guides on website uptime monitoring and alerting and on log retention for hosting and email infrastructure—show how to put this into practice without overspending.

Backups and tested recovery procedures

No matter how well you harden, incidents can still happen. The real difference between a minor incident and a business‑threatening disaster is usually backups and recovery:

• Keep multiple backup generations, with at least one offsite copy.
• Regularly test restores to a staging environment so you know the backups actually work.
• Document a simple recovery runbook: who does what when something goes wrong.

We strongly recommend following a 3‑2‑1 backup strategy (three copies, two media types, one offsite) and automating as much as possible via your hosting panel or VPS tools.

Summary and How dchost.com Can Help

Being flagged by Google Safe Browsing or landing on multiple email blacklists feels frightening, but it’s ultimately a technical and procedural issue, not a permanent sentence. When we help customers through incidents like this at dchost.com, the successful recoveries all follow the same pattern: confirm the scope calmly, clean hacked websites thoroughly (files and databases), stop all spam sources and fix email authentication, then request delisting with clear evidence that the problems are genuinely resolved.

From there, the real value is in what you change long‑term: how you update and secure your CMS, how you separate critical functions across shared hosting, VPS, dedicated servers or colocation, how you authenticate and monitor outbound email, and how you design backups and monitoring so you see problems early instead of through customer complaints.

If your current site or server is struggling with malware, spam or blacklist issues, our team at dchost.com can help you review your hosting architecture, plan a safer migration where needed, and implement the hardening steps outlined above. Whether you run a single WordPress site or a portfolio of applications, investing a bit of time now into security and reputation will pay off every time a browser loads your pages without warnings and your emails land directly in the inbox instead of disappearing into spam.