What to do when you get banned from Google

So you hired that dodgey SEO consultant, you saw a huge traffic spike, you were the number 1 term for viagra and then it all went wrong, suddenly you were getting no traffic a bit more digging you have been banned from Google what do you do.

Option 1 hire a real SEO consultant (this is you best option but not always available) make sure they have had experience with re inclusion requests (but also ask why they have this experience)  You can always PM me ;)

Option 2 the DIY route
This is worth doing even if your going to hire a consultant as it will save you and them time (and you a few pennies)

Step 1 - Take the site offline, completely offline, make a copy of the site and remove from server, change all your passwords for access to servers, mysql etc.

Step 2 - Place a site down for maintenance, make sure it says "I'm sorry this site is down due to an unknown problem at this time we suspect the site was hacked"   after all when in doubt blame some one else ;)

Step 3 - Check for files that you don't recognise or do not know what the file does, keeping the structure move such files into a quarantine folder. (If you get an SEO consultant in ask him to look at these files he will know the difference between a htaccess file and a backdoor script ;) )

Step 4 - Open each forward facing file and remove All outgoing links this includes advertising scripts etc indeed ideally remove all but the content if you can.

Step 5 - make sure their is no hidden text, or keyword stuffing and compare the site in multiple browsers

Step 6 - make sure each page has a title, H1 tag and at least 200 words of content

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At this stage you can re-upload the cleaned pages, your site is currently not making money so its important that you get re-included quickly so we can put the advertising back in. Your site is also probably running feature light but its important that Google see's you have taken extreme measures to clean the site.

Once you and your consultant are happy its time to beg, go to
http://www.google.com/support/bin/request.py
and report a problem asking why your site is not included in the index, explain that you were unaware of the problem and you think it was xxxx and you have taken the above steps to remove the problems. Be apologetic, rememmber you are talking to a human, not a robot and this human has the power to keep you out of the index.

This is a brief guide and really only covers html based sites. My advice is get a consultant (I would say that though its my job) If you are looking for one ask the following

Have you done re inclusion work in the past? - Answer: Yes, its a different ball game to normal SEO its worth getting a specialist
Why did you do a re inclusion work? - Answer: We have had clients come to us in the past from other consultants
Do you guarantee re inclusion - Answer: No only Google can answer if they will reinclude you but we have had a good rate of success in the past
Do you have experience with back end systems - Answer: Yes, this is technical SEO and so get a consultant who is familiar with how servers work, after all he will be doing a forensic investigation of your site and needs to know what he is looking for
Will you give a written report of your findings - Answer: Yes a Good consultant will be able to give a written report detailing findings, which can be presented to Google as evidence of work done.

I think the vast majority of people will never need this post but just in case you do the information is here

Nice tips. Have you ever been in that bad position? I mean have you ever got banned from google?

Nope never been banned, though we do have several clients who came to us post event, and have submitted re inclusions for them pleased to say we have had a very good success, I'm currently in the process of doing an reinclusion for a client  this morning, hence the post ;)

Its a different sort of Search engine optimisation and requires a different skill set its also time consuming and very repetitive, you have to be very methodical recording all changes and noting any issues. We offer two options 1 is just a get it back working option, and our second option is the Forensic investigation where we make no changes to the site, but work through all the issues and copile a report for the ISP/Host authorities so that they can initiate an investigation. This is normally only done if a site has been hacked or if the previous consultants had used the site as a means to promote something illegal. The process is very time consuming  a typical 100 page site can take up to a week to process.

Well, I guess I know where to go when someone comes to me with a banned site.

I actually took on a website that had been banned and the owner had gotten himself reincluded after removing a number of spammy elements of his own doing...but I came on at the "how do we get all the rest of the pages reindexed" stage.