The term blacklisting was introduced in the 2000s and refers to a penalty applied by search engines to a website that uses manipulation techniques to try to fool their ranking algorithm. Today, this type of penalty has completely disappeared in favor of Google penalties that can lead to loss of position on some queries.
What is Google blacklist?
In order to ensure access to qualitative information and optimal browsing experience for users, Google is often instructed to purify its index by deleting certain content from its site directory. This removal is referred to as SEO blacklisting.
Definition of blacklist
In theory, Google blacklisting or blacklisting refers to the penalty imposed by the search engine on sites that attempt to manipulate the algorithm to improve their position in search results. However, in practice, it is the deletion of sites that violated the rules and guidelines regarding security and protection of user privacy.
When a site is added to a search engine's blacklist, it systematically disappears from its index and does not appear in the SERP (search engine results page), even for a query containing its domain name.
Google blacklist, an outdated term?
Although they are very effective in protecting users from spam pages and malicious websites, the concept of blacklisting is almost obsolete. This type of penalty is no longer present in the arsenal of penalties offered by Google and other competing search engines: Bing, Yahoo! And Qwant etc. In most cases, web platforms that use abusive techniques are penalized, but they are not completely stuck in the SERP . Despite the significant loss in traffic, you may appear in search results for some keywords.
As Danny Sullivan announced in an article published on an official Google blog on April 19, 2021, only the owner of a website can remove its entire content from the web. Taking these different parameters into account, we can consider that the concept of blacklisting is completely obsolete in terms of natural referral .
Google blacklist and penalty
Even if the two concepts are very close to each other, blacklisting is far from being equivalent to Google punishment (Penguin, Panda, manual action, etc.). In fact, the blacklist principle refers to the complete blocking of affected URLs. It has not been explored by engine bots and is not displayed on the results page. This is undoubtedly the most serious punishment in natural sources.
On the other hand, manual actions and algorithmic filters demote the results page instead. These penalties are therefore not intended to systematically block affected web pages. It generally results in significant loss of positions. This happens when a website delivers low-quality content or when it uses Black Hat SEO practices such as:
- Using fake links
- If keyword stuffing
- Over-optimization of link stabilizers
- Misleading redirects
- Hide content
How do I know if my site is blacklisted or penalized?
Your website has suffered a significant loss in internet traffic and you want to check if it has been blacklisted by Google? There are several ways to find out if your site is blacklisted. You can for example:
- Use the command "Site: {Your-Domain-Name.com}"
- Check notifications in Google Search Console
- Review your statistics on Google Analytics
- Perform a complete site analysis with SEO tools
Website: Your-Domain-Name.com
This is a simple but very effective solution. This consists of typing the instruction “site: {URL-du-site}” into the Google search bar. Once done, run the query and wait a few seconds for the results page to appear. Next, check to see if your site or any of its pages appear in the SERP rankings. If not, your site is no longer in the Google index (which is very rare).
Google Post in Search Console
Whether it's a bypass for legislative reasons, low quality content or security concerns, Google notifies webmasters and owners whose pages have been blocked via a notification in Search Console . This notice is usually very explicit with detailed information such as: type of penalty applied, reasons for its implementation, timestamp of the operation ... So, to know whether your web pages are banned or not, you can check Google messages on the webmaster tool interface.
Review your metrics and statistics on Google Analytics
Another way to determine if you are blacklisted on a California search engine is to review your metrics and statistics on Google Analytics. This tool is designed to provide webmasters with accurate data and highly detailed graphs about the development of a site's organic traffic. Thanks to this information, you will be able to check if your site has been experiencing a persistent drop in traffic on certain pages for some time.
To do this, simply follow these steps:
- Access the Google Analytics interface
- Select the Behavior tab in the navigation pane on the left of the window
- Click on “Site Content” and select “All Pages”
Next, you will need to compare your current traffic rate with the rate obtained during the same period last year . Next, check the traffic evolution for each URL, in order to identify pages that record an unusual loss of visitation, those that are blocked by the algorithms.
Analyze your site with our SEO analysis tool
Aside from the previous methods, it is also possible to use search engine optimization (SEO) tools to find out if your site is a victim of being banned by search engines. All you have to do is analyze all your pages with a reliable SEO tool, like SEMrush. This tool not only allows you to measure the overall development of your site on Google, but also evaluates growth and traffic decline at each page level. This is done on the basis of traffic generated by the main keywords that the content revolves around.
To use it, simply enter your full URL (domain-name.com) into the tool's search bar. Just to the left of the ribbon, select “Domain Overview” to start the scan. After a few seconds, SEMrush will display the full result of the process, with graphs showing the evolution of your traffic over a well-defined period. Based on the information obtained, you can then determine which pages of your site have been added to the famous Google blacklist.
You don't know how to do it? Do not hesitate to take help from a professional SEO agency to avail tailored professional assistance.
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