Are you asking Google to ban you?

We all can agree on one thing that Google is the most common and widely used search engine. Having this thought in our mind, the last thing you do not need is not to have your website or blog removed from their index. Some of the webmasters engage themselves in some dubious “Black Hat SEO” techniques that may lead to their website being banned.

I want you to note that there are 2 methods you can use when doing search engine optimization; they are:-

• Onpage optimization- this involves applying tactics on your website that may improve your rankings as far as several factors are concerned; these include selection of keywords, image tags among others.

• Offpage optimization – this involves applying techniques off your website and this is where you can hit some good rankings. It involves linking with other websites.

Now let’s go back on how you can be banned by Google.

So how do you know that you have been banned? The easiest way to know is by going to Google search page and typing your full address and if initially your website had been indexed before and now it isn’t then….most likely, BOOM!

Sometime a webmaster may think that their website has been banned but may be it has just fallen in rankings.

Another method is by use of the Google toolbar which basically indicates the page rank of a given page. The same case applies here; if your page rank indicates “Grey” most likely you have been banned.Most SEO’s calls it “Gray Barred”.

Let me mention that some websites get away with doing most of these things but at the end of the day they do not help at all and they put a website at a very risky position to being banned, so it is highly advisable to avoid them.

Let’s see how you can be banned by using Onpage optimization:-

 

1. Hidden text

This is a situation whereby a webmaster may stuff the keywords he or she is trying to optimize by making them invisible to the visitors. He does this by making the font color the same as the background of the page. The search engine crawlers will be able to pick this up but naked eye would not. It is important to note that this kind of technique will not at all help improve your rankings and it might get you penalized altogether.

2. Alt image stuffing

Like I mentioned earlier that alt image tags are vital in improving your rankings however overdoing it can come back and harm you. Some webmasters try to cram these tags to “cheat” search engine. This can also get you penalized.

3. Meta-tag stuffing

This is another method that spamming can be done; some webmasters may throw thousands of meta-tags of exact same keyword. Let me point out that Google does not even use meta-tag when ranking websites. So this is not even something that no one should be thinking of doing.

4. Title tag spamming

This involves throwing many exact same keywords in your title page, you only need to put your main keywords and in a logical manner; repetition is just going to dilute the effect.

Those are just a few things that people continue to do online. These things will eventually get your website banned and will not help you rank well. So now that you know engaging in such a behavior is not only ignorant but a total waste of time.