Google Reinclusion Request

A while back, I posted on Google's No-no's — i.e., how to get in Google's bad books and possibly even have your site blacklisted by them. So, what do you do if your site has been blacklisted — because you followed some bad advice; you unknowingly hired an unethical search optimization firm; or, perhaps you took over a web site that had already been blacklisted?

Essentially, you need to get on your hands and knees and beg forgiveness from Google. Yep, you'll need to throw away your sense of pride and admit it was "your bad." You need to submit a reinclusion request at Google Sitemaps (if you don't already have an account, you'll need to register — don't worry, it's free).

Basically you'll need to fill out their form, explaining what you (or the previous site owner) did wrong, that you understand why it violated Google's webmaster guidelines, and, most importantly, that it will never happen again.

Makes you feel like you're back in grade school, doesn't it? But, hey, everybody's got to play fair!