Google penalties are very similar to sports penalties. In essence, they are designed to punish websites that have done something wrong. These penalties are not always assigned manually and can affect websites created by those who had no idea what they did wrong, but they can still have a huge impact on the site’s performance in search results, and more. So, in the following, you will find some information related to the Google penalty in SEO.
A Google Penalty means trouble
The Google Penalty means that your site no longer appears in search results or that it’s ranking for certain keywords has dropped dramatically. When your site gets penalized by Google, your target audience can’t find it. And when you are invisible to your target audience, your traffic and ultimately your income drops.
This can happen to any site. The Google Penalty can be the result of an honest and conscientious effort to improve your site’s rankings. But once you get a penalty from Google, it’s not easy to regain a good ranking and get rewarded again from Google.
Why do sites get a Google Penalty?
Google’s job is to deliver the most relevant search results. From Google’s perspective, any website that tries to manipulate search results is detrimental to the Google product. Google wouldn’t be Google if it was returning useless results or inconveniencing its users, right?
The Google Penalty is the result of a highly advanced and constantly changing algorithm that Google uses to track and validate websites. Some specific actions can lead to immediate fines from a Google employee, but other actions are not publicly advertised, and some can lead to a rating downgrade that occurs over time. This is to protect Google from websites that try to mock it or further manipulate its results.
Google penalty triggers
To make sure your site isn’t getting penalized by Google, make sure your site doesn’t:
1. Spyware, adware, or viruses
2. Hidden links or text
3. Disguise (display a different version of a web page for search engine robots)
4. Deceptive redirects (when a visitor is automatically taken to another page without clicking anything)
5. Pages loaded with irrelevant keywords
6. Keyword stuffing
7. A substantial amount of duplicate content
Google’s list of penalty triggers is extensive, but it can be easily summarized: penalties are triggered by any action a website takes to mislead a search engine or harm the user experience in any way.
How can I recover from a Google Penalty?
Removing the Google penalty is not always easy. It is important to know that there are two types of penalties: manual and algorithmic.Fines are manually imposed by a Google employee. They are issued most frequently when your website is found to violate the Google Terms of Service. This can include viral contamination, disguise, redirection, or link buying. When you receive a manual fine, you will need to ask Google to re-index your website, that is, to put it back in search results, before someone can find it again.