How to Avoid the Slap from Big G. – The Google Ban

Let’s face it, Google is the king of the search engines.  Do you remember when Google first appeared. Yahoo was king with its media crazy search page.  Google creeped in very slowly with this huge white page with nothing on it except one box and a submit button reading “Are you Feeling Lucky?”  What a great marketing concept.  And, now they simply dominate.

So, if you want your web pages to rank well in their eyes, straighten up and fly right.  Sure, there are several “Black-Hat SEO” techniques available. But, like on NCIS, you’re going to invariably leave behind a trail or a “footprint”.  The Google algorithms are primed nearly every day to watch for certain patterns in code that leave behind known footprints.  I have seen these things in the past and if you may get away with it for a short period of time, but sooner or later, Big G. will catch on and all the sweat and effort you put into that site (or a farm of web sites) is TOAST!

I don’t understand why Black-Hat guys do the shady SEO techniques anymore.  It takes just as much effort – build a solid website, the White-Hat way and give the Big-G to smile and pat you on the back with REAL, TRUE page ranking search results.  It’s really a gratifying feeling and something to be truly proud of.

Okay, so, I have several SEO techniques on my website on how to build your virtual real estate safely and effectively.  The White-Hat, real deal way to rank and create a profitable affiliate marketing website (or any other white hat website for that matter.)  But, here are a few things to walk away from should someone “suggest” them to you.  Heck, run away, don’t walk!

The following are reasons why you could be banned by Google:

  Duplicate Content

Don’t copy articles from another website and post it on yours, claiming it as your stuff. PLEASE! Is it really that hard to type and put things in your own words?  Say things the way you want to say them and give your writing a persona that reflects who you are.  Don’t steal content from another website, this is a big red flag to Google’s Plagiarism checkers.

At the very least, hire a “ghostwriter” to write some decent content for you.  There are several outsourcing outfits in my Affiliate Marketing Resources area that will be happy to do the work – and you get to own it and sign your name to it and take all the credit!

  Cloaking, A.K.A. Doorway Pages

This is an old-school trick of creating pages just for the search engines while having something totally different for actual website visitors.  Huge No-No !!!  Duh!

  Hidden or Invisible Links:

One reason why you could be banned by a search engine, is when you are creating multiple sites on the same or similar topic and linking them all together through invisible links. The links are hidden from the human eye via color/font effects.

Again,  you really need to have unique content on each and every site and not link them all together where it really doesn’t make sense to do so.  Build it right and they will come!

  Keyword Stuffing:

Most modern search engines have the ability to determine overuse of a word to increase the keyword frequency on a page. They also have the ability to analyze a page for keyword stuffing, and determine whether the frequency is above a normal level. So, do not stuff keywords while designing your site or else, you might get banned.  There are several “keyword density” checkers available.  1-2% is the general accepted ratio today.  That may not sound like much, but it’s what would occur naturally.

  Meta tag Stuffing:

Only one keyword should be inserted in meta tags. In fact, keywords should not be in the meta tags If it isn’t represented in the text content. It is also important that unrelated keywords should not be used on the site’s content.  This should be obvious, but perhaps not to some.  Again, natural well-written unique content is key.

  Hidden Text:

Putting text (usually keywords) where visitors will not see them, in order to increase a page’s keyword relevancy. This is commonly done by making some text the same as the background color of the page.  As opposed to the hidden links above, same scenario, different reasons.  See my glossary on Anchor Text and why it’s used for backlinking.

  Blog farm:

One common form of automated back link building that’s not allowed by Google is building links through the use of automated content farms. Imagine a group of blogs automatically stealing content from other websites all over the Internet, and then using thousands of pages of that stolen content to build back links to their main websites.

These schemes are often called blog farms, and are strictly not allowed by Google. Many of the links you can buy on the internet come from these types of websites and they can often have a very quick result in getting good rankings. Virtually always, however, Google finds them and black lists them along with all the links on the site so, your new found rankings will soon go up in vapor and your site is in the toilet.

If you are going to use a landing page then use one in which the visitor wants to be on that page and that the visitor feels that they have gained something by seeing your site even if they don’t opt into your offer. It’s better to become someone of quality and trust than somebody who just wants the cash and run’s away. Don’t be another victim of the Google slap instead, do your research and learn from others good and bad. When you join AdWords make sure that you read all of the rules.

Become someone who Google wants to work with and someone who has a great website full of value and content. Be someone who has integrity so that your reputation is respected and your global quality is trusted by many. If you want to take this seriously, then get serious and put yourself in your customer’s shoes.

Give Google the Love and Google will Return it!

Google will ban anyone who they think is just chasing the dollar signs and ban some for life. You can use a blog to advertise yourself and your goods. WordPress Blog’s are well respected and can be the perfect website to rank well on Google.

Go the extra mile and write, write and write some more.  Soon, it will become second nature to you and Big G. will reward you.