After the Google algorithm change known as Google Panda, introduced in early 2011, many low-quality sites have been blacklisted, simply because they contain many ads and little to no valuable content. If you think you’re at risk, add high-quality content to your website, and do it fast.

There are many other reasons why a website gets on the blacklist, besides low-quality. Here are the most common reasons.

Can a website be penalized because of link trades? Yes!

•    Artificial linking – A link to a website from another website is a thumbs up when the second website is reputable. But when the linking website has little to no authority, and features no valuable content, its only purpose being to link to other pages, it’s a thumbs down.

Note: Many think that Google has been changing the Google PageRank algorithm lately, and that more changes are likely to occur in the near future, so when judging a website’s authority, checking the PageRank is not enough; use your common sense.

•    Buying, selling, or exchanging links – Websites using paid link networks to buy links are frequently penalized, as are those which sell links or become involved in link exchange schemes. Since the Google algorithm change last year, all practices involving dubious link trades often lead to blacklisting. Even harmless link exchange between two websites with relevant content can be bad, because this is seen by Google as artificial attempts to boost the PageRank.

Can a webpage be penalized for bad on-page SEO techniques? Yes!

•    Keyword stuffing – Websites that abuse keywords, using them in excessively high densities (usually upwards of 4-5%) are inviting a penalty. Keyword stuffing is a bad practice and should be avoided.

•    Hiding text – Text can be hidden in a variety of ways, in an attempt to mislead the search engine bot or the visitor: it can have the same color as the background, be too small for users to see, appear only when the Google bot accesses the page instead of always (a practice known as cloaking), or be coded so that it appears off the page. This is a very bad practice and should be avoided by all means.

What to do when your website is blacklisted?

Stop using any bad SEO practices such as artificial linking, keyword stuffing, or text hiding, and add high-quality content that provides value for users. Organic SEO services can help you with that. Having high-quality content will protect you from any further Google algorithm change, helping you consistently maintain high ranking.