Google allows Rap Genius back in searches

Google gave Rap Genius, one of the most popular lyric websites, the boot but apparently it was only momentarily.

Google decided to let the site back into its good graces but under one condition, the site had to clean up its act...literally.

After being removed from the searches, the site worked personally with Google to fix its shattered SEO rankings fast.

Rap Genius later released a detailed explanation of what went wrong, how it was their fault and an apology.

Here's what the site had to say:

"To Google and our fans: we're sorry for being such morons. We regret our foray into irrelevant unnatural linking. We're focused on building the best site in the world for understanding lyrics, poetry, and prose and watching it naturally rise to the top of the search results."

The site has since removed all irrelevant links on their site. About 177,781 URLs that contained inbound links to Rap Genius were removed.

The website, which is dedicated to allowing users to annotate and explain rap lyrics, was blacklisted from Google's search result page after the site was caught linking to "unnatural links" through their "Rap Genius blog affiliate program."

The two adopted a mutual site promotion tool. The blog would promote Rap Genius pages in exchange for promotion from Rap Genius via Twitter and other social media.

In other words, the website had been using questionable spamming and SEO (search engine optimization) practices that were labeled as a scheme.