There are certain SEO techniques that people try to employ in order to get a higher PageRank. These techniques are often referred to as Black Hat.

Google, being a robot and not a human, may not pick up on the use of these tools immediately, but eventually your website will be penalized.
Using SEO techniques that try to fool or deceive Google can lead to your site losing its PageRank or being removed from the Google search altogether.

What are considered Illegal SEO Techniques?
The following are some SEO techniques that, if applied to your website, will eventually result in your website being penalized by the Search Engines. Undoing the damage caused by having your website reprimanded is not worth the initial gain of using these techniques.

Hiding Texts and Links
If a text is visible to Search Engines only it is considered spam. So what does Google consider hidden text?
• Any text written in the same color (or close to) as the web page background.
• Any text situated in an area of the page that has been defined as hidden or invisible using CSS.
• Extremely small fonts that are not legible to internet user.
• Any text that is being hidden behind an image.

Spamming the keywords
Using the same keyword over and over without any real content involved.
If you keep your keywords density at the recommended 3%, then you cannot be accused of Spamming, i.e. if your webpage contains 100 words, your keywords should appear no more than 3 times.

Selling Links for PR
Lately, websites that have integrated a practice where they sell links to other websites (meaning, website x pays website y to include a link to it) have been losing ground fast. This is done in order to increase the PageRank and is also considered deceptive.
For further information on Spam and Illegitimate SEO techniques, click here.

100% Frames
A 100% frame page is a page covered completely by a frame that consists of different content from the rest of the website. End result - Google sees one thing on which it bases its page ranking and the user sees something entirely different.

Using Redirects to Manipulate Google PageRank
An illegitimate redirect is a one that occurs automatically when you approach a certain URL. As you click on the link to that site, the page URL (address) will appear for a short while and then automatically redirect you to the main site. This technique is used to increase the number of times the website will appear in search results, as it will appear through different domains.
Google's crawlers will see a different page than the users, fooling the robot into giving a false PageRank.

Not all redirects are considered spam, there are several redirect types that Google accepts and acknowledges e.g. 301 redirect

My site is indexed, but doesn't appear for certain keyword searches
This does not necessarily mean that your website is being penalized for Black Hat activities. The site may just appear further down the search results, or perhaps you haven't done enough to optimize your site for those specific keywords.

Once you have established that your website has been crawled and indexed, getting the search results you want is the next big step and something that takes time and consistent effort - even for the most experienced SEO Experts.

Remember, the more websites Google has on a certain subject, the further down the list your website will be.

We also suggest you try using the Wix SEO Monitoring Tool to analyze your website's performance in connection to these specific keyword searches.
However, it's worth knowing what tactics are considered 'illegal' so that you know to avoid using them on your website. These tactics are detailed above.

Site was removed from the index, what do I do?
Whether you intentionally or unintentionally used illegal SEO techniques, it doesn't make much difference to the Search Engines that have penalized you. Now you will have to divert your energies towards undoing this damage.
Here's what you need to do:

1) Remove all Black Hat activity from your site
Go through the list above and look at what techniques may have hindered this process, as well as if you stopped your optimizing. Some Search Engines will inform you of what mistakes were made. You will not be reconsidered without first removing the offending content, so get it off your site.

2) Add new and reliant content
Google loves new content. Continue to add content to your website, social network sites and blog e.g. articles, information, updates, videos, images etc. Remember to keep using your keywords within the content you add. Make sure your content is relevant and of good-quality. Steer clear of spam.
Please read our continually updated blog.
Improve your site's SEO with the Wix SEO Monitoring Tool.

3) Submit your website for reconsideration
You can submit your website for reconsideration with Google here.