Avoid Being Delisted from Major Search Engines

Web developers should know what's necessary to achieve the best possible rankings on major search engines, and web content writers should also be aware of what works, but it's important to also look at what doesn't work, or worse, what can get you kicked off being listed on the major search engines for your content or webpages.

Being delisted by Yahoo!, Google or MSN, particularly Google, can be death to a website. If a website isn't listed and findable in the major search engines, then getting traffic to the website will require making direct or indirect contact specifically with those who will access the site. This is time consuming and can be expensive too.

To prevent being delisted from the major search engines, let's look at ten things a website can do that could result in being banned or delisted.

1. Inappropriate redirects.

Redirects are acceptable when necessary, but if your page that redirects has text on it meant to fool the search engines into indexing that page with those terms, and then the actual user comes to the page and sees the page for a few seconds before being redirected to a completely unrelated page, this is a sure fired way to be delisted.

Additionally, basing redirects off the viewers IP addresses to send the search engine bots to one page while real surfers go to another page will eventually be caught and result in delisting as well, perhaps for the entire site.

2. Malware.

Having malware, spyware, viruses, or hidden programs that run in the background of a page when a user lands on the page is a definite reason for delisting. Ad code and certain tracking cookies are acceptable, but a privacy policy and the use of those cookies should be posted somewhere on your site so that the search engines do not delist you for using legitimate tools to help your viewers.

3. Listing software.

Do not add code to your website that will send automatic pings or URL spider requests to search engines. Eventually, the search engines will determine you are using automated listing techniques and this will cause you to be delisted, because it uses up valuable resources for the search engine to constantly be pinged.

4. Irrelevant content/words.

One old-time blackhat technique to achieve higher ranking was to stuff a page with a bunch of words to drive traffic in order to get advertising revenue or to lure people to the page to steal user information, or just to trick someone into 'finding' the page. Semantic checking is commonplace in search engines now, and using lists of words to attract traffic will result in being delisted.

5. Be careful who you link to and who links to you.

Linking to websites known to be spammers or link farms or being linked to the same websites can result in delisting from major search engines. Link exchange groups will tell you, "I'll link to you if you link to me!" Some website even sell links. Eventually, these link farms become known for what they are, and the search engines will delist them, devalue their links both in and out, and delist or devalue any site affiliated with them based on links.

6. Non-valuable content.

Minimal and non-valuable content with multiple ads surrounding the content is obvious to the search engines to be only for trapping people to click on ads and make money. A website should be about providing content and information first, and then that content and information will automatically attract and turnaround a profit.

7. Avoid dead or broken links.

Websites with a lot of links that go nowhere or end in 404 errors will be penalized by search engines. Updating and maintaining your site so that dead links are removed or replaced is essential to prevent being delisted or penalized in ranking.

8. Old or obsolete or stale content.

Updating your site regularly will cause the bots to come and check your site more frequently to check for updates. A site that never gets updated will be penalized in rankings because the search engines will believe the content is old or obsolete or even that the site is not active. Keep your content current and regularly update or rotate your content.

9. Duplicate content.

Content that can be found word for word on other pages of your site will likely result in delisting. Content that can be found word for word on another site as well as your site can result in being devalued and penalized in the rankings. While minimal duplicate content is often necessary, be sure to add other information around or in the content that is duplicated to prevent being devalued in search engines for duplicate content.

10. Copyright infringement.

Multiple reports for copyright infringement to major search engines will result in delisting or penalizing the site for violating copyright laws. Use only content you have the legal Intellectual Property rights to use, or content you have purchased, written yourself, or have permission to use.

If you are building a website or writing web content for another site or your own, it's important to avoid these 10 potential pitfalls that can result in delisting or penalizing the ranking of your content or site in search engines.