What does being Banned by Google mean to me?

Many customers ask me, “so what’s the big deal about this Google banning thing?”.  As I try and explain Google’s algorithms, the lovely joy of begging to be allowed back into their (Google’s) good graces and the challenges of ensuring continued ‘cleanliness’, I feel sometimes a picture is a better idea.

Sometimes the worst part of dealing in this business is when the ‘experts’ scatter when the going gets tough.  I would suggest that about 65% of the customer we get who has issues – has also had their primary online support mechanism disappear as well (develop, hoster, etc.).  What’s really unfortunate is that these business owners placed their trust in others – only to be left hanging in their time of need.

Since Google is now the primary mechanism by which anyone online searches, procures or otherwise conducts business nowadays, getting on Google Blacklist or phishing warning is extremely detrimental to any business operations – perhaps even more so, the small/medium business customer.  Witness the latest GoDaddy hack of last week, and the conversation from the LinkedIn Group.  A small exposure seems to have let in the bad guys again, and I had over 20 emails from just a quick twitter/facebook notice I sent out.  Our monitoring of customer sites saw the infection before Google did, and thankfully we were able to reach the customer and have the issue resolved well before Google did.

This is the key here – our scanning usually identifies the vulnerabilities that are used to install malware before others do – and this is the value!  You WANT to know what is going on immediately so you can remediate the issues and close down the holes.

Like insurance – no one needs it until its too late!  We hope you were ok with the latest outbreak 2 weeks ago, and consider using Acunetix to identify and plug all the holes going forward!