How To Get Your Site or Blog back Into Google If It’s Been Banned
It’s a blogger’s worst nightmare. You’re making big bucks with your blog (say $100 per day), things are going great and then, BAM! Google removes you from their index. Overnight, your traffic drops to a trickle of what it was and your income falls off the cliff as well. What do you do now? Here’s a five step plan to get your site or blog back into Google if it’s been banned.
1 – Don’t Panic and Wait
If you think you haven’t done anything wrong, the best option is to simply wait it out. Google isn’t perfect and it’s indexing system does have glitches once in a while. I’ve known many webmasters who had their sites disappeared from Google only to show back up a week later.
If you haven’t done anything shady with your blog and find it missing from the Google index, chances are it’s just a glitch and it will return in a week or two. There’s no need to panic and no need to make any changes to the blog. If the blog doesn’t come back after a couple of weeks, then you can start worrying and proceed to step two.
2 – Correct What You Think You Did Wrong
If you think Google dumped you because you did something wrong, then the first thing you have to do in order to get back into the index is to correct the mistake. This is harder than it sounds because Google doesn’t tell you why they de-index a site.
To help webmasters stay on the right side of the tracks, Google created the Webmaster Guidelines. If you’ve been dumped, chances are you’ve violated one or many of those guidelines. It’s up to you to figure which rules you violated and then correct it.
3 – Send a Reconsideration Request
Once you bring your blog back into compliance with the Google Webmaster Guidelines, the next step is to submit a reconsideration request (used to be a reinclusion request). You do this at Google Webmaster Tools.
Fundamentally, Google wants to know two things:
- The pages that got your site banned are gone or fixed.
- That this is not going to happen again.
Additional tips from Matt Cutts:
I’d recommend giving a short explanation of what happened from your perspective: what actions may have led to any penalties and any corrective action that you’ve taken to prevent any spam in the future. If you employed an SEO company, it indicates good faith if you tell us specifics about the SEO firm and what they did–it assists us in evaluating reconsideration requests. Note that SEO and mostly-affiliate sites may need to provide more evidence of good faith before a site will be reconsider; such sites should be quite familiar with Google’s quality guidelines.
Don’t bother mentioning that you spend money on AdWords or you’re an AdSense publisher. The person who will look at your reconsideration request doesn’t care if you have a business relationship with Google. Remember, we need to know 1) that the spam has been corrected or removed and 2) that it isn’t going to happen again.
I would request reconsideration for one domain at a time. It looks bad if you had 20+ sites all thrown out at once, and you send a reconsideration request for 20 domains in one email.
It is my belief that the quality and detail of the reconsideration request is the deciding factor on whether Google lets you back in or keeps you out. Chances are a request that reads, “I’m Google compliance now. Please let me back in.” will fall on deaf ears. Here’s a video from Google’s webspam team with more tips on filing a reconsideration request.
4 – Hope And Pray
Once you’ve submitted your reconsideration request, there’s not much to do except hope and pray Google lets you back in. While Google has guidelines for webmasters, there doesn’t seem to be any guidelines on how they decides who gets back in and who stays out.
How long do you have to hope and pray? That depends on when Google reviews your request and on the type of penalty you have. Generally, you’ll be looking anywhere from two to six weeks, and sometimes longer, to have your site reviewed and reconsidered.
5 – Talk To The Man Himself
In the webmaster world, Matt Cutts is The Man. As the head of Google’s webspam team, he can front-line your reconsideration request and get you back into the Google index within a day. If you had no luck working with Google using the normal channels, then the next step would be to talk to the man himself. However, please make sure you corrected whatever got your banned and that your site is 100% Google compliant before trying to contact Matt.
Getting an audience with Matt is easier said than done. You can try to email him (a clever blogger will be able to find the email address) but it may never get to him because of the corporate filtering system. If you want to make sure Matt gets your email, the best way would be to have someone who is on Matt’s “Safe List” facilitate an introduction. That is what I did.
If you don’t know anyone who is on Matt’s contact list, you last chance is to corner him at a trade show. Matt is an extremely fair guy and if he tells you he will look into your case, he will. You just have to decide if it’s worth the expense of attending the show.
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Well, the formalities to get your website re considered or re indexed shows one thing. Never do a thing that would antagonize Google to de index your website. But the problem is we do make mistakes in our endeavor to promote our websites.
The formalities are stringent and very hard. I hope and pray I dont get on the wrong side.
yeah I agree the penatlies are way to harsh. I had a site booted out, and I still dont really know why. I suspect the way my developers setup the rewrites and 404 pages was the problem, but I really dont know for sure.
10k spend on building the site, it had just started increasing in traffic, approaching around 7,000 uniques per day and BOOM, its all gone now, bar about 500 a day from yahoo and bing.
Could having too many keywords describing the page be considered for Google to ban the site?
How long did it take you to get 7k uniques per day?
If you need to cheat to make your site popular, you’re probably not going to make it in the long run anyway.
Its not always about cheating to make your site popular. In some cases like John’s it is about how the ads on your site work (I don’t remember the details, but you can search them).
Blake
Yes, sell a link may drive to blog banned by gogle.
Paid for links are an absolute no-no. A couple of years ago we tried that route on an experimental site that we were trying things out on before implementing them on ours and we went from PR4 to PR2 in one fell swoop. We didn’t get banned though, but that taught us the paid-for links lesson very quickly.
You are right. Paid links are not viewed favorably by google. Google has a lot of differences when it comes to other search engines. DIrectories are not considered part of SEO because google is not viewing it favorably.
Paid links is something inviting trouble. So is building massive links.
i remembered jeremmy the shoemaker told me that ” never ‘ buy link from text link ads .. google know it and rank you badly…. i believe this is true .. how about you guys….
The unfortunate thing about the credibility of some internet marketers is that they will not buy or sell links using Text Link Ads. Because of the fear of Google.
They will however continue to send people to Text Link Ads via affiliate links or allow them to buy advertising…
If that was true nobody would be buying links, but they are, and they’re ranking high which is making them a helluva lot of cash.
Matt Cutts has some great info on paid links on his blog, I recommend everyone checks it out..
I agree, reading Mats blog should be obligatory for everybody that wants to be successful on the internet, SY
I agree, you may be able to generate some traffic short term, but eventually Google will catch on. It’s very simple. Just be Google’s friend, and it will treat you nicely.
I’m guessing this is a followup on your blog contest site. I’m glad it worked out for you.
If you’ve been penalized page rank wise, does it make sense to also follow these instructions to get some of your rank back?
The procedure is the same whether you’ve been banned or you think Google is ranking you wrong in the index or page rank wise.
Hmmmm, OK – Am I understanding right? If you feel that you should be ranking higher than you actually are you can also get on Google’s case? This could be interesting, as I’m sure we all pretty much feel that way!
How do you know if your google ranking is wrong?
you will know by see your traffic…..lol
I would assume your PageRank would drop..
It’s true that “G” may have some glitches and being banned doesn’t really mean you have done anything wrong. It’s best to know their side of the story.
Glitches do happen but that is not an excuse. This merely shows we cannot be over reacting. We must wait atleast for a week before we react. Best thing always is not to find ourselves in the wrong side of Google.
Nice clear set of tips. You’ve got a unique perspective on this topic!
Oh wow, you are really the expert, even your site is banned you still can save it, that is really pretty!
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When someone’s site has been banned, I think that most of the time he will give up it, just like me. I have given up one site this year. Luckily, it is was worth so much
Few people are lucky enough to get an audience of Matt Cutts.. That is a fact!
Do you think that most people who get banned know what they did wrong?
One reason why people get banned is when google finds hidden links (spam) on your blog. It is usually a case of a blog being hacked into and the owner is not aware.
It happened to me but I was lucky because google sent me an email warning me of the impending de-listing, They demanded I clean up the mess, then request I consideration. I was shocked to discover a hacker had placed 700 hidden links on my homepage.
So, if you have been de-listed don’t just seat and wait forever, check whether your blog has hidden links.
To your success.
Hackers are a good reason for you to change your admin name from ‘admin’ and to have some long semi-random strings as passwords.
In addition, run anti-virus and continually swwep your computer for the lastest spyware/malware… etc
I think better I put the antispam to avoid that happening…
Thanks for this tips john, so Iknow how to react now if my blog banned by google.
yeah.. john really know what blogger want… this is way i visit this blog everyday….
Good recommendations! Thank you for delivering the info.But better if it won’t happen.
It looks like Google recently gave me the axe. I am going to have to follow this procedure…
I missed that you got back in to Google after so long. Congrats! It must be helping your traffic out a lot.
It can take up to six months to get back in … be patient
Six months is a pretty long time.. Especially if you depend on that site for some sort of income..
Thanks a lot for this post, John. If Google slammed me down, I’ll know roughly what to do…
I know what I would do: Lock myself in my room and cry.
Thanks John for the heads up. The banned me from Google Adwords for no reason. At least I know I know what to do if they kill my blog.
I’m sure there was some kind of reason for that. Google doesn’t disclose any specific reasons tho..
The bottom line is, try not be be blatantly naughty, and if you do get caught, fix it ASAP.
Clean-up your mess and prove to Google that you’ve learned from your mistake. but good thing that you provide the details John.
It’s best if you don’t make those mistakes in the first place.. Especially if you can’t afford them!
don’t cheat to make your site popular.
Less competition for other people
If someone cheats their way through, they’ll get what they deserve.
Nice step by step guide, but as others have already mentioned, the best way to stay in Google’s index is prevention. Means, follow their webmaster guidelines to the point and don’t try anything grayer in SEo than a pure snow white
SY
I am thinking that when people noticed that their sites has been penalized by Google they panic, but just like what you have said, Google isn’t perfect. They also perform mistakes.
You will panic when you know that you did something wrong. lol. But even if someone didn’t do anything wrong, they tend to panic either way.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, the more successful you are the most likely Google keeps a close eye on you. What might work when you are just starting might get you banned when you have gone over a certain threshold. There is also the ?rumor? around that Google keeps an especially close eye on a certain group of authority / influential sites and their followers. SY
Great article! I have always been wondering how to get back to google if I was banned. Thanks for sharing this info!
So that means you’re planning on getting banned? I would hope not..
Thanks a lot for this post, John. If Google slammed me down, I’ll know roughly what to do…
Thanks John for sharing this info with us
A quite helpful article which will be the friend in need.
nice .. i love the tips number four.. pray… yeah .. i thought this is the best we can do for that situation
Call the Google hot line, cry and beg for forgiveness… That might be your solution.
Hmm I have done all those steps, apart from contacting the man himself. which is my last shot at it I guess. being in another country makes it a tad more expensive to attend a trade show, but I guess I need to figure out a way to make it happen.
Yes I am also regular visitor of Google blogs and infact I enrolled myself for their RSS feeds.
So everyday you can say 15 minutes devote to them and to their latest updates.
You can say I just give my attendance to Big G
I think John has posted something like this before. Where he shared his own story with Google. We must prepare ourselves for that time. Big G can act any time
Big G could make your life miserable regardless of the reason.. You have no choice but suck up to them!
Ya they do this the other way with PR penalty for text links.
huh, really owesome… can get back after banned! thanks for sharing sir!
Well, it’s not a guarantee.. It’s possible, depending on whether or not Google is having a nice day.
lol i’ve had 600+ sites banned from google,
- i’ll never do mass building again.
Ouch! That must have hurt! Did you recover at least some of the loss? SY
Wow I feel really bad for you.. Wanna provide some more details as to why that happened?
i was never penalized so far! and i hope i dont. I guess John knows better about this google slap
of course you can get back with google even after you get banned! Its only if your site is worth it!!
I wonder why Google banns any website? Does it has to do something with extensive link building? So far I know is, more links are better.
You really are smart John Chow and such a great expert when it comes to Google. I hope my site never gets banned by Google but if it does, I will do what you said. Thank you.
I hope my sites don’t get de indexed for whatever reason.. Does Google tend to penalize for a few links between your own sites?
You don’t want to get indexed ? Use to robots file to get this done.
Google doesn’t penalize you for linking between your own websites but it doesn’t help your sites rankings very much either (as long as you host them on the same IP).
oh yeah, stalking Matt Cutts is the way of getting back in Google index..
I’m scared that my blog Trying To Make Money Online has been banned from Google as it is no longer in the Google search engine results at all. I tried site:URL as well and had no luck finding my blog. The only reason that I can think of that I got banned is because a couple of my posts are also in my website. I
Getting banned by google is night mare, therefore I always looking for the reason why google banned a blog?. If our google adsense account has been disabled by google, is it effect to our index in google? (disappeard)..
I was banned from Adsense, but was reconsidered within a week…LUCKILY…
-Mike
Thanks for sharing. Your blog now ha a PR5. is awesome how fast it goes if your website is back to google. What is happen to your earnings when your blog arrived back at google?
These are interesting facts user should know
I hope it never happens to my “how to make money” http://www.money-era.com/ site