When running a business online, it is important to consider how your website is presented to potential viewers. The first impressions that your website creates on your audience can reshape their overall idea about the products you offer. URL Blacklisting is one of the ways in which your website can get blocked for most users out there, and report suspicious activity.
In case you’ve ever visited a website and got presented with a red security warning, then you may have already faced the issue of URL blacklisting. This can lead to a lower amount of views on your website because of these warnings, and affect the overall performance of your product sales.
Search engines often check for malicious websites and websites with lower security standards and adds them to a blacklist. This enhances the overall experience of the end-user and provides them with safe and valid services. In this article, we have explained what exactly URL Blacklisting is, and some of the common and effective ways to fix this problem.
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What is URL Blacklisting?
URL Blacklisting refers to the process by which search engines and other security firms classify websites that contain malicious code or harmful software that can affect the end-user. Even potentially malicious websites can be tagged as harmful in the major databases.
When these blacklisted websites are implemented in browsers, search engines, and security software, the users are notified of potential security and blocked from the content on the website. Google has special algorithms that check for malicious and harmful content and actively block them so that the user doesn’t have to face potential security flaws.
Factors that Determine Whether an URL is Blacklisted or Not
There are several factors that Google and other major search engines check for before blacklisting a website. This is done in order to create a safer environment for search engine users. Search engines and security firms are often on the lookout for any new websites with malicious intents, such as –
- Websites containing Trojan Horses
- Phishing websites to extract user data
- Extracting information from browsers
- Adware and spyware plugins.
- Spam websites
- Automatic download of malicious programs
In case Google or other search engines detect these types of malicious code in the websites, then these are automatically blocked and added to an URL blacklist. Google Chrome shows blacklisted websites with the message “The site ahead contains malware”.
If you’re a business owner or have a profitable website, and your visitors are facing these types of problems, then chances are that your website has been infected or hacked with malicious programs. The first thing you should do in these cases would be to check whether your website is actually blacklisted or not.
How to Check if Your Website is Blacklisted?
There are several security checks online that can let you find out if your website has been blacklisted by Google or not. These websites compare your website with various databases and find out whether your site has been infected, hacked, and subsequently blacklisted or not.
Safe Browsing by Google
In this service offered by Google, you can easily check whether your site has been marked as unsafe or not. Google’s transparency report can also show you if a certain website is dangerous to visit or not. To use this service, you just need to enter the domain of the website that you’re checking in the URL bar and tap on the search button.
Visit: Google Transparency Report
Site24x7 Blacklist Lookup
Another great way to check whether your website, domain or server has been blacklisted is to use the Blacklist check from Site24x7. This service can be used by directly copying and pasting the domain address of the website that you’re trying to check.
Visit: Site24x7 Blacklist Lookup
Another great way to check if your website has been blacklisted is to see the rate of incoming traffic. In case there has been a rapid drop in traffic at a certain point, then this may indicate that your website has been recently considered unsafe.
How to Avoid Getting Your Website Blacklisted?
It is important to keep your website’s security at the top condition in order to avoid being blacklisted by Google and other major security providers. You can follow a simple checklist of simple measures to keep this problem in check.
Keep Things Updated
In case your website uses a multitude of plugins, themes, and APIs to display content and perform important functions, then it is essential to keep them updated at regular intervals. As time passes, more and more vulnerabilities are discovered and implemented by malicious parties. In order to avoid these vulnerabilities, you should always keep key components of your website always updated.
Always Use Trusted Software and Services
Often untrusted software is available for free or at a much cheaper rate than other valid and trusted options. You should try to avoid these as they are often bundled with malware or adware. It is always a great decision to not use these tools because of the aforementioned reasons. Try to opt for premium options or at least software from well-known developers.
Opt for Reliable Hosting Platforms
It is always advised to get a reliable hosting service when building a website. Good hosting platforms can let you monitor the condition of your website and provide key insights on how to manage it in a better way. This can also save the time you’d need to spend on managing blacklist problems.
Conclusion
Getting your website blacklisted is one of the worst ways to lose traffic and experience an overall decrease in trust and sales of your company. Google and other major search engines do this blacklisting process in order to protect the user’s data. But, in case you want to avoid getting blacklisted, then you can always follow the tips listed in this article and keep your website secure.
