Updated: Google Webmaster Guidelines - More Details on Quality

Quality guidelines - specific guidelines

• Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
• Don't use cloaking or sneaky redirects.
• Don't send automated queries to Google.
• Don't load pages with irrelevant keywords.
• Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
• Don't create pages that install viruses, trojans, or other badware.
• Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
• If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.

If a site doesn't meet our quality guidelines, it may be blocked from the index. If you determine that your site doesn't meet these guidelines, you can modify your site so that it does and then submit your site for reinclusion.

IMPORTANT NOTE: While Google suggests that once you've remedied any guideline wrong doings, you can submit your site for reinclusion, the time to get re-listed in their index can take as long as it did to get included in the first place (2-3 months for some sites). So it's a simple lesson - avoid the penalty in the first place.

Labels: Google

Posted by Rene LeMerle at 11:19 AM GMT