5 Reasons Your Blog May Have Been Banned From Google

Posted on Aug 7 2013 - 1:47pm by Victoria Heckstall

Google

In order for a blog to be successful, you must have traffic on your site. There are many ways to increase the traffic to your blog. One important factor to increasing traffic is where you rank on Google Search results. By using specific keywords and designing your site to show up well in search engines you can increase your Google Page Rank. On your mission to increase traffic to your blog there is a fine line between what is allowed and what will get you banned from Google? It is important to follow the rules to avoid being banned or have your page rank lowered significantly.

Cloaking

This is a popular trick used by spammy sites. Cloaking is essentially designing your page in a way that search engines see one image while actual visitors will see a completely different page. With cloaking, a person may see a summary that matches their original search but be taken to a completely unrelated site upon clicking the link. Cloaking is one technique that will quickly get you banned from Google search results.

Duplicate Content

If your blog was created specifically to promote your business, it may be easy to use the same content through multiple pages. This is just one form of using duplicate content. Another form of duplicate content is actually worse than reusing your own content. This is using someone else’s content on your pages. When Google software crawls through pages for information to place in their search engines, it will look for all signs of duplicate content. Pages using the same content will be banned as this is against Google’s rules.

Linking

Links and backlinks are a great way to increase traffic to your page. However, creating links to and from other pages can be tricky. Many bloggers will be tempted to purchase links in order to save time. This is of course difficult for Google to discover but if they do your page will be banned from their search results. Many large companies have attempted to purchase links and have been caught.

Another linking technique that will get your blog banned is linking to bad neighborhoods. Often times pages will create links to your page. This does not mean you are obligated to create a link back to their page. Before creating links back to pages, be sure to check out the page. Pages that break the rules of Google are considered bad neighborhoods and can cause your page to be banned from Google search results as well.

Viruses

Whether or not you are intentionally or knowingly distribute software filled with viruses or Trojans does not matter to Google. If your page is caught distributing viruses to the visitors, they will remove you immediately. This is primarily to save the public from incurring damage caused by the viruses. In order to prevent the distribution of viruses, be sure to check out all software you agree to distribute through your page and be sure your server is secure from hackers. Very few page owners will knowingly distribute software filled with viruses but being vigilant will help you avoid being banned from Google due to lack of knowledge.

Using Robots

There are several programs advertised to help you create your website instantly with no effort on your part. This may seem like a great idea, make the money from the site while putting little to no effort in. However, Google does not like when you use automated robots to create your content. The main reason for this is the likelihood of duplicate content as well as spamming advertisements. If caught using robots to create your content, you are sure to be banned immediately.

Photo Credit: Flickr/TopRank Online Marketing

About the Author

Victoria Heckstall is a professional writer who has been writing online since 2011. She is also the owner of Young Work At Home Moms where she shares advice with others who want to work from home.