Irwin Mitchell's main website has been de-listed from Google searches, apparently as a penalty for breaking guidelines on linking from external sites.

As first spotted by search engine optimisation (SEO) experts last week, the law firm's main domain – irwinmitchell.com – no longer appears on Google searches, except for paid results for its website.

In a blog post filed on Friday (24 January), SEO consultant Alex Graves said Irwin Mitchell had likely been penalised for paying other websites to host content linking to the firm, spamming message boards or placing links to its website on other pages.

The greater the quality of the websites that link to a domain, the higher Google will raise the profile of the domain in its search results.

Websites tend to be de-listed by Google if the search engine does not trust the reliability of links to the site, or what the search engine calls "unnatural" incoming links.

On finding evidence of the paid-for links, Google will have contacted Irwin Mitchell to notify it of the penalty, one SEO consultant explained to Legal Week.

The only way for a site to have the penalty revoked, is by removing or disavowing the links, and asking Google to review the case.

"Irwin Mitchell are considered to be one of the biggest solicitors in the UK today," commented Graves. "But that hasn't stopped Google from doing something that we have seen happen countless times over the past few years, completely eliminate a brand from their organic rankings."

As of today (28 January), 'irwinmitchell.co.uk' still shows up on some Google searches, though this domain links through to the '.com' website.

An Irwin Mitchell spokesman said "We are aware of the situation and are working closely with our digital agency to deal with it."

Google did not respond to requests for comment.

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