Assume the position…you fit the description!

It seems in recent weeks that Google is forcing Whitehat SEOs to go underground.

With recent posts from Michael Gray and Lisa Barone it seems that Google is putting out an APB alert on all SEOs.

So what happens if one of your websites was found to be guilty in the eyes of Google?

In Lisa’s post “Fact: Viral Conversations faced more scrutiny because Michael is an SEO. …Google handles your site is both site-specific and SEO-specific. And they do hold grudges.”

Now if a person’s website once got deindexed or penalized from Google’s index then they can fix the problem, and request a ‘reconsideration request’. The part in the form that bothers me is Google is demanding to know if the person worked with an SEO.

“If you used a search engine optimization (SEO) company, please note that. Describing the SEO firm and their actions is a helpful indication of good faith that may assist in evaluation of reconsideration requests”

Most clients who hire an SEO do not know anything about SEO, and this is why they hired someone. This reminds me of how a police officer interviews a potential suspect. They tell the suspect to let the officers know everything, and say that the information MAY assist their future sentencing. Everyone knows that if you dont have anything in writing then you have nothing! NADA!

I also believe that Google takes in consideration the Spam Reports or Paid Links report it receives from individuals looking to report their competitors. I believe it’s treated the same way when the police receive a report of a suspicious vehicle in the neighborhood. Some neighbors are nosy, and others just like to look for trouble. Those looking for trouble are normally YOUR competitors who would love for you to drop out of the rankings. Google takes all the reports seriously, and will also look to see if you’re doing something else wrong. I wonder what would happen if 10 different people or 10 different IP addresses report a website for something false. Just like in our regular justice system….even innocent people go to jail because of false witnesses.

 Here are a few tips to avoid the Google radar…..

1. Your domains should have a private registration. I own a few private domains, and have not seen any negative impacts on the SEO part from making them private. Google is a registrar, and can view all the domains that you own. If they find that you’re doing something wrong with 1 website, then they’re more than likely going to look at your other websites.

2. Stop bragging/boasting about how you ‘gamed Google’ or how you ‘quickly shot up the rankings’. Doing this will draw Google’s attention, and even Matt Cutts frequents forums to see what others are doing to spam Google. Google’s best moderators of the web are YOUR COMPETITION. Your competition will love to find a reason to fill out a spam report to see your rankings drop. There are even ‘religious’ white hat SEOs who will report you to Google because they try to exceed Google’s guidelines, envy you, or they’re trying to win some brownie points.

 3. Believe that Matt Cutts is a double agent. You better believe he’s loyal to Google, and he will do what’s in their best interest. Sharing information or asking him the wrong questions THEN handing him your website will only hurt your chances of ranking. His responsibility is the the search engine not to email you to tell you that you have a potential violation of Google guidelines. Google’s goal is to build the quality of the search engine, and not to help you increase your rankings.

4. Be careful with leaving footer tracks. It was a good idea to have a backlink to your site on your client’s footer for referral traffic, and for some link juice. The potential problem doing this is that Google can view your backlinks, and will see who your clients are. Not only will you be monitored with your own SEO company’s site…they will also view all of your client websites. If you were penalized with 1 site for a certain issue, then they’ll look to see if you’re doing the same thing across all of your sites (including clients). There’s nothing worse than someone reporting you in the reconsideration request, and Google taking a hard look at your work. Chances are that they will look and look until they find something wrong. Another reason is that your competition may find your clients, and start soliciting them directly. Also, be careful with displaying a portfolio to the public on your website.

5. You fit the description. The title was taken from profiling of students who were profiled because of their color. The truth of the matter is that a lot of people are profiled because of many different stereotypes. If you proclaim to be an SEO, then you will be looked as a ‘person of interest’ to Google. Your websites, and your client websites will all be scrutinized with a different eyeglass to make sure you’re not trying to manipulate Google’s algorithm.

If you’re really paranoid, then you can try these. Don’t use the same username for bookmarking accounts; Use different hosting providers; Use different logins for your Google accounts WITH different IPs;