What Is Google URL Blocklist? (Remove Your Website From Blocklists in just 3 steps)
Blocklisting of URLs has become a common occurrence these days It's crucial that the business owner takes every step to avoid it.
For your convenience, we created this post to provide you with the information that will help you prevent your site from making its way onto a URL blocklist and then removing it in the event that it does.
What Is a URL Blocklist?
Here's what a blocked site appears like in the browser you use:
Although most of the websites that are blocked are indeed dangerous It's fairly common for innocent sites to find themselves blocklisted.
In reality, Google blocklists around 10,000 sites every day, which means it's clear that the best websites tend to be left out of the list.
What is the process behind URL blocklisting?
The cause could be some nefarious factor however it could also be the result of doing something wrong with your website configuration, or flagging your site up in Google's search results.
Below are the most important aspects that search engines search for when they decide what websites they want to block.
If you have one of these issues with your website could cause it to not be found by the majority of searchers, or at least drop in the rankings.
1. Unsafe plugins
But, as plugins may be developed and released by anyone, it can be a bit difficult to determine what plugins will be safe to install on your website.
Based on the information available about known WordPress problems, nearly 18% of them are WordPress plugin weaknesses:
2. Phishing Schemes
Phishing techniques have been extremely well-known over the last few time. Over 60,000 phishing websites were discovered in March of 2020.
Phishing attacks could have catastrophic consequences for a victim.
Bank account hacks are fairly common results of a phishing scheme. In more serious cases, identity theft can be an issue. It is for these reasons that search engines are investigating any site which may contain links that are phishing.
3. Trojan Horses
In terms of computing the term "tornado horse" refers to the term "tornado horse" refers to a Trojan horse can be described as a virus or piece of malware that disguises itself as harmless. Criminals usually conceal a dangerous program inside of software, which then gets into computers when the program is downloaded.
Trojan horses can be compared to phishing scams in that they're specifically made to trick someone to download harmful software without their knowledge.
It's not surprising that this method is viewed as a snub by search engines. It is among the primary reason why a website suspect of having malware that can be downloaded will be immediately blocked.
4. Defacement
Defacement of websites is when a hacker take over the control of a website and alters the site's content with their own.
Usually, this is accomplished through the addition of the use of phishing websites, Trojan horses, and other potentially harmful malware.
A few hackers may be capable of creating images that look almost the same as your own which means that your customers and clients may not be aware of any changes.
URL blocklisting aims to take these websites off search engines, so that no one can become a victim to these defaced web pages.
5. SEO Spam
A few site owners think that, if they include a lot of target keywords into all the pages on their site, then they'll show up more often in search engine results.
The search engine companies, however, are very cognizant of this, and are able to easily remove any articles that have been overloaded with words
How to Check if your site has been added to the URL Blocklist
We've already mentioned that the main problem with your website being banned is that it is very difficult to spot the moment it occurs.
There are many tools available which can inform you whether or not your website has been blocklisted. They also point you towards the specific websites that cause issues, and you can then deal with and then delete if needed.
There are three ways of checking if your website has been blocklisted:
1. Google Search Console
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If your website has been unfortunately blocklisted, you'll see the blocklist here:
2. Check Your Traffic Stats
A sign that a website has been blocklisted could be a sudden and rapid drop in traffic.
3. Site Check Tools
Simply run your website through Sitechecker and/or MxToolBox to check the outcomes.
Between them, the site checking tools will:
- Check out your domain's health status
- Find out if your domain IP has been marked as spam or blocked
- Report on spam list databases
How Being On the URL Blocklist Will Have an Impact on your business?
It's pretty easy to see how such a large reduction in traffic could be able to negatively impact your business, growth, and final results.
Blocking your website is a definite thing that any website owner should avoid at all costs.
In the next part, we'll go through the various strategies you can use to make sure that your URLs don't be added to any URL blocklists.
How to Protect Your Site from Being Put on the blocklist
The best method to avoid being on the list is to be sure there is nothing happening within your website which could draw the attention of Google. But, observing the rules yourself isn't always enough. We know hackers are able to take over sites and claim them as their own.
In the simplest terms, you must:
- Make sure your website is secure,
- Develop and create your website securely and in a secure manner,
- Do not take risks with 'black-hat' techniques as much as is possible.
Thankfully, there are a handful of measures that website owners can take if they want to ensure your website doesn't have to have security issues.
Update, Update, Update
Utilize Strong Passwords
Another obvious way to protect yourself is to make sure you use secure passwords. Sure, you've heard this one before However, there's a surprising number of people who use pa55w0rd' as the security code for all of their accounts.
A password that is secure can stop hackers in their tracks and protect your server from unauthorized access.
Make sure to check out these password-related resources:
Avoid Letting Users Upload Files
Another tip is to not letting website users upload their own files as much as possible.
While you might be looking to enhance your users' experience by uploading profiles pictures and similar files to the site, this can be a big potential crack into the wall that people are able to profit from.
Beware of Risky Practices
If you want to have the highest chances of keeping your URLs far from blocklists, you need to try to avoid any risky methods.
In the SEO world, these tend to be referred to as black practices'.
While these methods are effective on the surface but implementing them could have negative effects if not done properly.
What you should absolutely avoid is things such as keyword stuffing.
Keyword stuffing, hidden keywords, and articles that generally aren't aligned with your brand/product/services will quickly flag your website up with Google. Google is then likely filtering your URLs out of their searches and you'll see your rankings decrease dramatically.
If you've learned the best way to stop your website or URLs from getting blocked Let's look at possible things you can do to remove URLs that are blocked from being listed.
How to remove your URL from the Google Blocklist in 3 Steps
If you have identified that your website has been blocked by Google, we need to work on removing it. This is the step-by-step procedure to remove your website from the blocklist.
Step 1: Identify the Infection
- Viruses
- Links to Spam
- Malware
What's causing the blocklist, once you've identified it, you can take the next steps to remove the issue.
Step 2: Clean the infection
When you have identified what's creating the problem then you are able to work towards eliminating it. Here are some steps to take to clean up the areas of infection:
- Disable any obsolete plugins.
- Check for any unverified users and remove those who shouldn't exist.
It is possible that you will find these resources helpful:
Step 3: Submit to Google for review
You should then send your website to Google for a malware review so Google could reevaluate the site. You can follow these steps to submit your site for a review:
- Go to Google Search Console and go to the Security Issues Tab.
- Click "I have fixed the issues".
- Now, select "Request for a review".
- List the steps you have implemented to get rid of the problems on your website. Be as detailed as you are able to be here.
- Click to open the Manual Actions section.
If there are multiple problems, repeat these steps until they are all solved. Just keep in mind that Google can take up to a few days to review your site.
Summary
It's quite clear that blocking your website can have negative consequences for your website's traffic as well as your business.
While there are measures you can take to combat malware and hackers, occasionally it's just luck that you don't have. That's why it's crucial to recognize the indications of blocklisting as soon as possible and try to take action to stop it.
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