102 tips to protect yourself from google.

Original Article from:
http://www.insidecrm.com/features/tinfoil-hat-toolbox-042408/

(I did not write this) Currently, it has 93 diggs.

Google is one of the Internet's darlings, universally loved by just about everyone. Everyone, that is, but webmasters who've had their domain networks wiped from Google's results. Some sites deserve it and some don't, but the bottom line is that a Google hit doesn't have to be devastating. Read on to find out how you can segment your domain network so that Google can't take your entire portfolio down in one fell swoop.

Identity

Use these methods to segment and conceal your identity.

1. Keep separate ventures separate. Don't try to mash your cooking blog, Web-design site and photography business all into the same space. Create separate legal entities for each, and you'll not only be safe from Google, you'll also be more organized.
2. Don't list all of your domains together. Have you listed all of your domains on your résumé and put said résumé online where it can be found by Google? You've just handed over a cheat sheet. Don't make this blunder or a similar mistake — never list all of your domains in the same place.
3. Log out of Google. When visiting your own sites, make sure that you're logged out of Google services. It doesn't hurt to run through a few different proxies, either.

Domains and Private Registration

One of the easiest ways to connect your domain network is by checking out your WHOIS information. Here's how to muddy the waters.

4. Know that Google is in on private registration. It's been discussed that Google probably has access to private registration data, so doing this may offer little help.
5. Anything you register can and will be held against you ... . Cshel considers how Google evaluates multiple domain holders.
6. Register privately anyway. By itself, privately registering your sites can't hurt, so you might as well do it anyway.
7. Don't put your faith in fake registration data. Chances are, Google can see right through your fake registration, and you're making things harder on yourself by having to create separate accounts for different domains. This is also against ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) rules and can be grounds for losing your site.
8. Use different registrars. Break up your domain registrations among a handful of different registrars just to shake things up.
9. Redirect parked domains. To avoid looking like a spammer, send your inactive domains to active sites instead of filling them with link pages.
10. Use different registration information when you can. If you're not going the private-registration route, consider registering under different LLCs or partner names — or just different variations on your own name.
11. Know that lots of private registrations will raise red flags. If you have a bunch of sites linked together and they're all privately registered, you're asking for Google to take a second look at who's really behind them all.
12. Separate your white-hat and black-hat sites. If some of your sites are a little more on the dark side than others, use different data for them than you do on your white-hat ones, or you may risk having them all connected.

Content

Stay under the radar and on Google's good side with these content strategies.

13. Always change content. Google will see straight through your work if all you're doing is scrambling a few words or hitting the thesaurus, so actually put some work into changing your content if it's the same across a few sites.
14. Make use of user feedback. One way to change up your content between similar Web sites is to encourage user feedback in the form of reviews, comments and forums.
15. Outsource content publishing. If you have enough domains to require lots of original content, just get someone else to do it. That is, unless you like functioning with no sleep.
16. Don't automatically republish content on multiple sites. This strategy will land you a duplicate-content penalty.

Design

Follow these simple design strategies to stay safe.

17. Mix up your templates. Avoid using the same template over and over again for different sites.
18. Mix up your code. Don't copy and paste code from one site to another. Try to at least customize it in some way so that you cover your footprints.

Footprints

Cover your tracks with Google and beyond using these tips.

19. Uninstall the Google Toolbar. If you have the Google Toolbar installed on your machine, the company knows what sites you're visiting. Visiting your own sites over an over again could make it clear that you own a network of seemingly unconnected sites.
20. Don't share data between AdWords and Analytics Don't allow Google to link your data between Analytics and AdWords, or the search engine might find something you don't want it to see.
21. Use Google Webmaster Tools wisely. Obviously, if your sites are all listed under the same Google Webmaster Central account, you own them all.
22. Our Digital Footprints: Google's (and Microsoft's) Most Valuable Asset: This article discusses how digital footprints work and how search engines like Google use them.
23. Don't use duplicate SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. Do you have the same SSL certificate or account for a number of different sites? You've just left a trail for Google to follow.
24. Consider using different IP addresses. When building tools like site maps with Google, the company can track your IP address and see that visits have all come from the same place. To combat this, you can take advantage of free wifi connections, which will serve up different IP addresses.
25. Tin Foil Hat Time: Google Analytics Data Sharing Program: This article takes a look at what happens when Google shares data from Analytics with AdWords.
26. Use different PayPal accounts. If you use the same PayPal account or other monetary service on all of your sites, you've just made it easy for Google to follow the cash straight to you (and likely connect all of the sites that use it).
27. Profiles: Again, don't list connective accounts everywhere. This includes social networks like Facebook.
28. Separate your Google AdWords accounts. Don't use the same AdWords account for lots of different domains. Instead, keep them separate both for segmentation and organization.
29. Use different social-media accounts. Are you submitting all of your posts and articles under the same username across different social media sites? You've just made it incredibly obvious that your sites are connected.
30. Break up your analytics. The same goes for Google Analytics. Use different accounts to track a few different sites.

Advertising

Pay close attention to how you advertise in order to stay under Google's radar.

31. Don't use AdSense. This tip will be painful for some, but the fact is that Google can connect you by following the flow of money.
32. Segment your affiliate IDs. Just about every affiliate program you join will assign an ID to you, so it will be perfectly clear which sites you own.
33. Use varied ad campaigns. Don't use the same ads and ad suppliers over and over again. Mix things up a little — it's good for testing the market anyway.

Hosting

Use these hosting strategies to break the connections between your sites.

34. Use separate hosting companies. If all of your sites are coming from the same IP address, it's going to be obvious that they're connected.
35. Avoid using a dedicated IP address. Unless you're willing to get a few different dedicated IP addresses, avoid using just one or it will be a clear link between all of your sites.
36. Get on a shared IP address. Use a hosting company that will group your sites with others so that they'll be spread out among different IP addresses.

Link Buying/Building

Don't let your links provide a trail to all of the sites you own. Use these strategies to shake things up.

37. Be careful about linking between sites. If you have lots of links flying back and forth between otherwise unrelated domains, it will be pretty obvious that you're artifically building links with your own stock.
38. Buying Links Under the Radar So Matt Can't Find Them: Jim Boykin offers some advice for stealth linking.
39. Buy links under the radar. Put your links in places where they'll blend in so that even someone looking for a paid link wouldn't find it.
40. Trade links with many different people. If you're trading links with the same five people, you're making it entirely too easy for Google to connect you and all of your sites.
41. Be aware of what links your sites have in common. If most of your sites link to the same few domains, it's cause for suspicion.
42. Distance yourself from other advertisers. Don't buy links on Web sites that are openly selling them. Instead, go where other site owners are not.
43. Vary your directories. If all of your sites are getting links from the same directories, it will be easy for Google to determine that they're linked in some way.

Hiding from Google

These strategies will help you keep Google in the dark about your domains and online activities.

44. Don't let Google store cookies. Set Google sites as an exception on your cookies so that the search engine can't track your searches.
45. Modify your robots.txt file. Keep Google out of some of your sites or only show it what you want it to see by tweaking the robots.txt file.
46. Two Ways to Hide Your Secrets from Google (and Everyone): Follow these tips to keep Google snitches at bay.
47. Use Scandoo. The Scandoo search-engine wrapper not only warns you about malicious Web sites, it also allows you to search somewhat anonymously.
48. Online Privacy: How to Hide Your Google Search Engine Trails: Are you searching for your own sites with Google? Hide your trails using these tips.
49. Use an alternative search engine. If you want to hide from Google, don't use the company's search engine. Check out alternative search engines like Clusty that serve up the same results with more privacy.
50. Play hide-and-seek with Google Analytics. Grant Robertson explains how much information Google has about you and your sites and what you can do about it.
51. 'Ungoogleables' Hide from Search: Read this article to find out how some people have avoided being discovered by Google.
52. Use a dynamic IP address. Using a dynamic IP makes it harder for your Google usage to be tracked.
53. How to Hide from Google: This article offers steps that you can take to hide some of your network from Google.
54. Hide and Speak: Google, We Don't Need No Stinkin' Google!: Jennifer Laycock proves that you don't need Google to build a successful site.
55. Hide your WordPress plug-ins. Modify the wp-content/plugins folder and your .htaccess file to make sure that others can't see your list of plug-ins and connect the dots across your network.

Google Eval team

At some point, the mysterious workers behind http://eval.google.com are going to visit your site. Here's how to be ready for them.

56. Offer something of merit. Don't just provide links and affiliate ads — offer content like reviews or price comparisons.
57. Host your own images. Evaluators are on the lookout for sites that have all of their images hosted elsewhere.
58. Don't practice cloaking. If you're intentionally presenting different content to search engines than you display to users, you're likely to get flagged.
59. Five Ways Google Should Know My Posts Do NOT Contain Paid Links: Follow these tips to avoid getting your network penalized for paid links and posts.
60. Place AdSense in posts. Many paid posting companies and link services won't let you put AdSense in your posts, so prove that you're blogging for free by sticking AdSense in the middle of your work.
61. Offer more "valuable attributes." More information is better and can help you achieve more relevance when being evaluated.
62. Don't hide links. Placing external links on your pages just so that search engines will see them is an easy way to get flagged.
63. Avoid using 100 percent frames. Although you should already be avoiding frames from a design standpoint, building a site that uses 100 percent frames just might get you kicked off of Google.
64. Avoid hidden text. Google has taught their evaluators to use the Select All feature to spot hidden text and to report any sites that use this method as offensive.
65. Google's Human Quality Evaluation: How to Spot Offensive Sites & Google's Whitelist: Henk van Ess has detailed information on how Google employees look for offensive sites.
66. Make blog posts longer than 50 words.: Most paid-per-post companies require that you write posts of about 50 words to surround their link, so a blog full of 50-word posts is sure to raise some flags.
67. Don't stuff keywords. If your site has a bunch of keywords jumbled up in an incoherent paragraph, it will be painfully obvious what you're doing.
68. Provide a variety of links. Evaluators are specifically looking for sites that point all external links to one Web site, and they flag such sites as offensive.
69. Don't deliberately include misspellings. Some misspellings happen, but having lots of them makes you look like a spammer.
70. How Google's Editors Tag & Destroy Offensive Affiliate Sites: Brian Carter's article offers a few practical tips for avoiding having your sites tagged as offensive.
71. Avoid malicious behavior. Don't create sites with viruses, Trojan horse, spyware and other Internet evils.
72. Google's Human Touch-Rater Hub-The Secret Google Lab?: This article breaks down the progression of Google's evaluation team.
73. Don't use "doorway" pages. Using pages created just for search engines will land you and your sites in hot water.
74. New Google Spam Recognition Guide for Quality Rater Review: Brian Ussery offers a nice rundown of the details found in Google's spam guide for evaluators.
75. The Secret Lab of Google: This animation gives a little insight into the dashboard of a Google evaluator.
76. SEO: An SEO Red Flag?: This post runs down a number of actions that could be misinterpreted as offensive.
77. Don't use cookie-cutter content. Change up your text and images so that your sites don't all look the same, or worse, like other affiliates.

Tools

These tools will help you protect your network from Google.

78. TemplateWorkz.com: This template directory offers a seemingly endless variety of Web-site templates that will help you keep things different for each and every domain you own.
79. Scroogle Scraper: This search wrapper will let you anonymously search Google with no log of your search history.
80. Use content writers. Make use of professional writers to get fresh, original work for each domain you own.
81. Use different Web directories. Don't submit all of your sites to the same old tired directories. Mix things up by checking out the sites in this directory of directories.
82. Use Clusty.This alternative search engine offers meta-searches without saving your data.
83. Hide My IP: This software will hide your static IP address and even set it to change every minute.
84. CustomizeGoogle: If you use Firefox, take advantage of this extension that will anonymize your user ID, remove click tracking and more.
85. Use free wifi hotspots. Mix up your IP address by using free wifi connections.

Blogs and Forums

Check out these resources for ongoing ideas and commentary on Google activities, and you'll never be left in the dark.

86. SearchEngineWatch.com: SearchEngineWatch.com offers plenty of ongoing information on Google developments and suggestions.
87. IsGoogleEvil?com: This Web site shares information about Google's wrongdoings.
88. Search Bistro: Search Bistro's Henk van Ess has information about the Google Eval team and more on his blog.
89. SEO Book.com: Aaron Wall's blog offers a look at SEO (search-engine optimization) that's often critical of Google.
90. Matt Cutts: Admittedly, Matt Cutts, a Google employee, is a strange choice to include in this section, but he frequently offers white-hat solutions for staying in Google's graces.
91. Google Watch: Google Watch consistently serves up useful information for protecting yourself from Google.
92. Search Engine Roundtable: Search Engine Roundtable will help you stay on top of the latest Google changes that can affect your network.
93. Jim Boykin: Jim Boykin offers a critical look at Internet marketing with Google and beyond.
94. SEO Black Hat: SEO Black Hat offers lots of sneaky ways for working around Google.
95. Stefan Juhl: Stefan shares his knowledge about Google profiling and more.
96. WebmasterWorld: WebmasterWorld and its forums regularly report new Google happenings.

References

For even more information about protecting your site from domain profiling, check out these reference articles.

97. Google Domain Profiling: This article offers many strong tips for hiding the fact that you have more than a few domains.
98. Avoiding Search Engine Woes with Multiple Domains and Websites: Follow this advice to avoid getting flagged as a spammer.
99. Is Google Profiling Website Owners?: Read this discussion to get some insight into domain profiling and what you can do about it.
100. Competitive Webmastering & Domain Jujitsu: 7 Tips to Keep Your Network Hidden: Here, you'll find a number of useful tips for keeping your domain network under wraps.
101. Surprise, Surprise ... Google Knows All Your Sites!: Stefan Juhl explains why it's perfectly reasonable to expect Google to be able to connect your sites.
102. Google's Webmaster Guidelines: This should be obvious, but following Google's Webmaster Guidelines can go a long way toward a network takedown.

 

wow!! this is really incredible, I think these are must these days, if we dont wanna get into mess from Google.
But seriously nicely compiled article.

 

Oh nice post even its copy paste

 

Thanks for your post.

 

great read. Thanks

 

Thanks for the tips!

 

Is this true? Did you already use this?

 

It seems like if one is totally white-hat, then one would not have to be so cautious/paranoid... Oh well.

 

Thanks for that. It were very useful tips!

 

So I'm confused (or thick). Why do I want to hide from Google? Won't my tin-foil hat protect me?

 

Hey Thanks for sharing very interesting and useful tip. keep sharing your knowledge with us !!

Cheers,

 

Thanks for sharing with us

 

wow Super useful tips!!! thank you a lot