SEO is the buzzword today and if you have been linking left and right, accepting inbounds links to your site and linking to other websites to increase your rankings, halt! Google stresses upon the fact that though linking is important but links from bad neighbourhoods can cause a dent in your rankings rather than boosting them.

There is nothing as frustrating than getting lower ranks just because the site you linked to or got linked from, is flagged for malicious spyware or suspicious activity. So the sooner you diagnose your links for malware, the safer you are. Here is how to do it for free – the Google way!

Google Safe Browsing Diagnostic Tool:

Google provides you a quick, easy and free method to check a domain’s recent history for infections and suspicious activity. This becomes essential to check and verify all your link drops and exchanges and all outgoing links from within your content.

Type this simple query in your browser’s address bar:

http://google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=the-site-you-want-to-check.com

Replace the text after the ‘=’ with the name of the site under your investigation.

For example, if we want to check Google’s history for attempts to serve malware, the link becomes:

• http://google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=google.com – This will generate the following report

You’ll notice that although they try really hard, even the most popular websites are not safe from malware attacks. You can imagine what such a threat can do to your website’s reputation. The results of this diagnostic might not be very comprehensive as of now, but it is pretty handy in verifying the safety of all links.

It is also advisable to check your own website once in a while just to be assured about your health. Make this tool a part of your webmaster tool box and stay safe. Best Wishes!