Google Penalties: A Must-Read

[djbaxter]

How I reversed my Google ranking penalty
October 5th, 2007

Why I actually got penalised by Google
First, however, and according to Matt Cutts himself (head of the Google spam team), my Google penalty was imposed for two main reasons:

1. Having paid links to bad neighbourhoods
2. Trying to game my search engine rankings with black hat SEO

You might be surprised to learn what he did to get the #2 penalty...

...more

As lawyers like to say, govern yourself accordingly...

 

[Linda Buquet]

You really have to play it safe to stay in the G's good graces.

 

[djbaxter]

Yes. I confess it surprised me. Placing links in free WordPress and Blogger or vBulletin (and other forum software) themes is a common practice... this makes me wonder how Google views that practice, although I think it can be argued that doing that is just registering the copyright.

 

[ajcones]

Yeah, if you want your site safe then you must follow the Google rules.