Google Blacklist: What, HowWhy

Acting like a synonym of any search on the internet, Google is a household name with users across every age group, gender, or raceNeed to look for the nearest restaurant, just Google itNeed to look for any urgent information? Google becomes your best friendgives all the answers.

About 3.5 billion search queries are made on Google dailyWhat happens to you as a business, when Google stops its users from accessing your website? It will hurt youyour business in a way that you can lose both revenuereputation in a few hours of time.

That is exactly what Google Blacklist does to you because Google is always on a lookout for anything that can harm its usersIt constantly scans websites for any suspicious activity to protect its users from every sort of malicious contentAs a result, it can blacklist a websitereturn warning messages to users like – ‘This site may harm your computer’, ‘Deceptive site ahead’, ‘This site may be hacked’,so on.

It simply tells the user that they must not visit the website as it has a malware capable of harming themtheir dataNow imagine the harm this message can cause to your brandDoesn’t look pretty, right?

Don’t worry, we will answer all your questions related to it so that you can protect your business from the dreadful Google Blacklist.

Table of Contents

Different Types of Google Blacklistwhat causes it

There are three broad categories of warnings that are issued in the case of a Blacklisted website.

1Google Blacklist For Malware

Malware is a harmful code which is capable of causing havoc on a user’s computerIt can snoop around the activities on a computer, tamper with fileseven lock the user out of their own devices.

When such a threat looms over its users, Google blacklists the sitedisplays a warning message that says, ‘This site contains malware’ or ‘This site may be harmful.’ The message looks like this:

It is the message that can send your websitebusiness in the red zone of Google Blacklist.

2Google Blacklist For Phishing

Phishing, as we know, is the Social Engineering method of obtaining your information, while posing as a genuine siteWhen Google’s scan indicates that a malicious actor has made changes to the site, such that it can deceive a user by making them share information, it blacklists the website under suspicion.

Usually, the websites affected by Spear Phishing are put under this red zone of horror for the businessesFollowing message appears on the screen if a user tries to open such a web-page:

3Reasons that don’t involve an external actor

It is not just an external actor who can bring Google Blacklist to your doorstepFactors like Black hat SEO techniques can also affect your websiteput you on Google’s blacklistSuch shortcuts provide website owners an undue advantage when it comes to Search Engine rankings, thus triggering Google to take an action.

Another self-initiated factor that can cause the grim situation of Google Blacklist is, stealing content or copying other web pages on your own websiteAs a result, Google looks at it as a fraudblacklists the website.

Cloaking is also a factor that is a result of a website owner’s action, rather than an external playerIt happens when the site owner shows a different website to a user, hence, cloaking the real site as seen by the Google BotsAs long as the contentmeaning remain the same across regionsdevices, cloaking should not be a problem that you would face.

How to get out of the Google Blacklist?

Since everything from Google Search Result appearance to your Page Rank is a major factor for how your business appears online, the removal of Google Blacklist is extremely important.

There are a few simple steps that you can follow to get out of the red zone.

1Checkunderstand why your website is in Google Blacklist

Once you know that some damage has been done, the next step is to control itget back on your feet as quickly as you canThe first step should be to understand why it happened in the first place.

Google Transparency Report can help you understand what went wrongwhy your website URL results in the color red paint all over a user’s screen.

This report will help you understandfix the problem quickly.

2Clean the Infections

Once you know what the issue waswhy it took place, let the cleaning begin.

First, reset all access passwords to your websiteback-up your website.
Second, identify modifications to your files that may seem unfamiliar to youYou can also use an online Malware Scanner for this process.
Third, remove the malicious files, code snippets, links, content, etcfrom the website.
Fourth, clean the tables of infected databasesdisable any plugins that have obsolete modules.
Lastly, ensure that everything is running smoothly.

There are some guidelines available that can help you in the malware removal processOtherwise, you can always go for a professional malware cleanup, which is fastefficientA professional malware clean up can save you a lot of timeeffortSince a professional clean up is faster it also lessens the chance of severe damage to your websiteSEO.

3Submit your site for a review

Once you have removed the infectionstaken necessary steps, in order to ensure complete safety, the final step is to submit your site to Google for reviewYou have to confirm that the issues have been fixed, along with details of the action taken to fix itOnce you do that, Google reviews the applicationtakes appropriate steps.

These steps are not just time-consuming, they also require professionals who can do it for youget your business back on its feetBlacklist removal is a task that can take the energy out of youyour team in just a few hoursLuckily for you, Astra has a number of such solutions that get out of the blacklistmake your website ready to face challenges in the real world again.

Summing up

Since prevention is better than cure, timely security auditsfixing the issues identified can help you in avoiding such a situation completely.

Take care of yourselfyour business by getting security ready with regular malware checks & firewallsDo it so that you never have to lose business because of a red screen.