Search engine optimization (SEO) practitioners walk a fine line. Their main target, Google, maintains an extensive set of standards that discourages gaming the system in order to improve search engine ranking. But legitimate SEO – the type that provides original, meaningful content written purposefully – can unintentionally run afoul of Google’s strictures.
SEO Consult writes that "many businesses panic when their site disappears from the search engine results pages, and rightly so. It’s a situation no site wishes to be in. Time is needed, however, to determine whether the lack of inclusion was just a glitch or whether it was in response to perceived rule-breaking." The blog also notes that it can be difficult to tell whether or not a site really has disappeared from Google’s index.
Working with professionals – who are much more likely to be familiar with the ins and outs of search engine optimization (SEO) – can help avoid a costly de-listing and the consequently time-consuming battle to reinstate and re-index a banned site.
