How to Avoid the Google Blacklist

Appearing at the top of search results is vital for the growth and success of just about any business, no matter the size or industry. And, the best way of staying at the top is through implementing and maintaining a cohesive SEO strategy. However, just like there are business practices that’ll do more damage than good, there’s also a wrong way of improving your search engine ranking. This practice is known as black hat SEO—and will land your website on the Google blacklist in no time.

What is Black Hat SEO?

The phrase “black hat” originated in Golden Age Westerns, where the villain would wear a black hat, and (you guessed it) the hero a white one. And, wouldn’t you know, each hat color has a type of SEO associated with it, too!

Given the context of that historical detour, black hat SEO is the process of engaging in unethical practices simply for the sake of increasing your site’s search engine ranking—and, by doing so, violating that search engine’s terms of service. Simply put, if you don the black hat while developing and implementing your SEO, you’ve become the villain. And all SEO villains are liable to be thrown in search engine jail by Google.

Common Black Hat Techniques

      1. Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing has no positive impact whatsoever on your SEO ranking. However, it certainly has a negative one. Spamming keywords will trigger Google’s algorithm and get your site blacklisted fairly quickly. Instead, you have to be smart about your keyword use.

Under the current algorithm’s ranking requirements, your keyword should take up no more (and certainly no less) than 2 to 3% of your copy’s wordcount. If it’s too high, it’s high time to cut out your keyword-heavy copy. Or, you could attempt extending the overall word count of your article (without sacrificing quality by adding filler, of course).

Likewise, make sure to keep every page to one primary keyword only. Attempting to utilize different primary keywords will either sink you in the search rankings or get your site thrown in the SEO slammer.

      2. Content Spam

The definition of “spam” is relative to the size of your website. If you run a smaller site, quickly ratcheting up your total corpus of content in such a short period of time is bound to get you blacklisted. If you’re running a site that receives thousands—if not millions—of individual readers a day, you run less of a risk of getting flagged.

So it’s best to make sure that you add new content at a constant pace—not too fast nor too slow. (Which is where an editorial calendar comes in handy.) And if your calendar isn’t quite working out, look at your site’s analytics. The number of viewers you receive, and other similar data points, will help you get your finger on the pulse for your publishing frequency.

      3. Cloaking

No, I’m not talking about Gandalf the Grey or White’s accoutrements. Cloaking is the practice of intentionally misleading web users by having your search result display one thing but link off to completely different content. More times than not, it involves a keyword misdirect to trick the algorithm into thinking that the content is something other than what it is, all in the name of increasing clicks and moving up the rankings.

Just be straightforward with what each webpage contains and don’t attempt to hide the actual content behind something that’s more widely searched. (Most unsavory sites on the web use this practice to hide undesirable content from web crawlers, anyway. You definitely don’t want to be lumped in with those.)

      4. Link Farming

Let’s get some of the positives out of the way first: having your site linked to from other sites is an important factor in increasing your page’s ranking. It builds credibility and authority by showing the powers that be that your site is trustworthy and contains quality content. So, too, does linking out to other sites in your own copy.

Now, let’s dive into the negatives: having a “link farm” with dozens—if not hundreds to thousands—of links is a sure way to get blacklisted. Just like having way too many keywords is a way of tipping off web crawlers that something’s amiss, having way too many links will set off the same alarms. Make sure your links are placed smartly, support copy wisely, and all serve a distinct purpose in boosting the meaning of your webpage and SEO.

      5. Copyright Violation and Plagiarism

This one’s pretty self-explanatory: Plagiarism is bad. The unauthorized or unlicensed use of other’s work is also bad. That’s it.

The solution here is creating original content. I won’t say “it’s not that hard,” but it sure beats dealing with any potential fallout (legal or otherwise). Make sure to properly cite and credit the work of others if you reference or use it in your own.

      6. Domain Name Overload

This is one of the more egregious (and irreversible) SEO sins. Setting up a domain that forwards to your site isn’t unusual—especially if you’re running some form of promotion, undergoing a rebrand, or expanding your operations.

Some of the more malicious violators will generate several “unique” domain names that link back to their main site. This form of black hat SEO is an attempt to trick users into thinking each individual result is its own site, all with the hopes of increasing viewership to their own. However, like everything else on the shady side of SEO, too many forwarded domains will get you blacklisted—and potentially outright banned.

      7. Malware and Hacking

While this doesn’t fall under SEO, it’s one of the most common reasons sites become blacklisted. Even if you don’t intentionally pump your site full of malware to attack unsuspecting visitors (but if you do, shame!), you need to take the proper precautions to avoid any form of security breach. Just make sure to enable two-factor authentication, log out when not editing or publishing, keep tight tabs on your site’s activity and permissions, and use secure passwords. (Password123! won’t cut it anymore!)

What Happens When Your Site is Blacklisted

If you’re unfortunate enough to have gotten blacklisted, one of two things are likely to happen. Either the search engine will display a warning on your site that states it’s “unsafe” or “compromised.” Or, the entire site will be completely removed from any search results until the issues are addressed and resolved. From there, you have to start your steady climb out of the blacklist abyss.

How to get Delisted from the Google Blacklist

First things first, you need to see what’s wrong with your site that’s causing the blacklist. Thankfully, Google makes this easy with their Safe Browsing Site Status tool. It provides a high-level rundown of what’s wrong, so you can take the proper steps of cleaning it up.

Then, you’ll need to start the process of eliminating the issues. If it’s a site-wide thing, it’ll take some time (so you may as well use that time to freshen up on your SEO knowledge).

Once completed, you’ll need to request a security review through your Google Webmaster account. However, the wait can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, so strap in! And, for repeat offenders, that period can be around a month, if not longer.

Ultimately, getting blacklisted due to black hat SEO isn’t the end of the world—you can almost always rectify any mistakes, it’ll just take some time to rebuild your ranking and credibility. The important thing is to recognize what’ll get you blacklisted in the first place and how avoid it, Or, if you do get blacklisted, recognize what went wrong and take the proper steps to fix it.

Alec Sarnowski is a content writer, SEO junkie, and serial comma abuser for one of the most dynamic content agencies in Atlanta.