Condemned by Google

There was an article recently on Forbes.com called "Condemned To Google Hell" about companies who have been banned from Google. If you just read the first few paragraphs, you might think to yourself that Google just arbitrarily baned their websites. But near the bottom, you read this:

he admits that he tried gray-area tactics like buying links from more established sites to juice his traffic.

and

...[the owner] thinks he can trace his problem to...replicated content on many of the site's pages, making them look like duplicate--that is, spam--content.

I find the "I'm innocent! Oh, wait..." attitude these guys have interesting. Cheater shortcuts on relevant sites are still cheater shortcuts and you have a good chance of getting caught and banned.

Article: "Condemned To Google Hell"
Source: Forbes.com