Ah…just remember, I had a scary moment yesterday and I really wanted to share about this to all my fellow bloggers. When I did my usual blog hopping the other day, I saw a SEO widget from another blog. Since it looked good, I thought I should replace my old one and try this . I installed it and tadah, it looked very nice!! I was also amused because it was very informative.

It went well for a few hours. Then later in the afternoon, I got an “ERROR” page from Google. I couldn’t access my blogs (Pinay Mommy Online, MOMEMO and Blessings and Beyond) and so us from my friends blogs with their own domains which were hosted by Blogger. It really freaked me out! My bread and butter…all lost and gone!!

Of course, because I was totally freaked out, I asked my friend Joliber if he knows something about this. I asked him to check if he can access my page. Then he told me he has no problem accessing my page. Then I gave him the link of my 403 FORBIDDEN PAGE. Carefully, he described what was written on the page…(too much freaking-out, I was not able to read what was written – LOL!!)…and he suggested that I should do these things.

To make the long story short, I calm down and read the page. I did what was suggested until I was able to find what was wrong. So…what was wrong?? The SEO codes!! It was violating Google’s TOS and got my IP temporarily denied access to my blogs and my friend’s blogs. When I installed the codes, it somehow implanted something in my browser’s cookies that got my IP denied.

After clearing all the cookies, browser history, scanned my PC, removed the codes and pinged my blogs, after few minutes…I was granted access. Thank you Joliber for making me see and thank you God!!

Lesson Learned: “Everything is permissible for me – but not everything is beneficial.” You can use all the codes you can find online, but remember…not all codes are beneficial to you or to your site. Be careful in installing free codes or you will get a free ban. LOL!!!