For most of the users of the websites, traffic is the primary source of income or traffic is very important for them, but achieving high ranking is not an easy task. Therefore many marketers use black hat techniques to rank on the search engine.
Many websites get penalized by algorithmic updates such as penguin and panda. If your website is penalized, then it can result in a drop in the ranking, and a drop in ranking means a reduction in traffic.
In this article, we are going to cover the given topics-
- What is the google penalty in SEO?
- Reasons why your website gets penalized?
- How do you know that your website is penalized or indications?
- How to deal with the penalties?
- How to avoid penalties?
Let’s start…
1. What is the Google penalty in SEO?
Google penalizes the website when some use techniques that are against the webmaster guidelines.
The main reasons why google penalize the website are- due to algorithm updates like a penguin or due to the manual practices.
Getting penalized has many drawbacks like a decrease in the ranking, website traffic, lower conversion rates, and lower sales.
Google updates its algorithm to deal against the wrong practices and manipulation of organic results and to avoid black hat SEO.
If your website gets penalized, you can use Google Webmaster Tools to figure out the timing of the drop in traffic and the latest Google updates.
Before the Penguin update, many people use black hat SEO or negative SEO. In black hat SEO, the marketers or the website user forces Google to show its content or website in the top search engine ranking.
Some of the common techniques used in this process are- using irrelevant keywords, keyword stuffing, spam links, spam comments, copied content, using doorway pages, and many more.
Are you thinking of using a negative SEO technique?
Using negative SEO can increase the ranking of your website for a short period of time, but after your ranking decrease and the chances of getting penalized increased.
The latest google algorithm can detect the wrong and spam links, or we can say that Google can detect negative SEO. So, it is better to stay away from this technique.
2. Reasons why your website gets penalized?
Google algorithm update
It is the most common type, and it is spontaneous, or we can say that it is automatic.
In this case, Google penalizes your website after its algorithm update. Having bad or spam links and duplicate content is some of the reasons why your website gets penalized.
Strange links
It is when you or someone else creates strange or artificial links to your website.
After the penguin algorithm update, google can analyze those links and degrade their value, and if it detects that there are many spam links coming from the irrelevant directories, then in this case, it will penalize the links and your website.
Comment spamming
In this case, people use automated programs to make a lot of comment links.
Duplicate content
If you are- copying content from other websites and publish on your own website. Copying irrelevant content.
Duplicate not only decreases your ranking, but it can increase the chances of getting penalized. So, avoid copying or stealing other’s content.
Doorway pages
In easy language, doorway pages are many different pages with a single goal. These are the sites that are made to rank high for a particular search query.
The bad effect of this is that it can lead to many similar pages in user search results, and each result takes the user to take action for a single purpose.
Content creator
Using automated content creator also decreases your ranking and increase the chance of penalizing because they use irrelevant keywords and synonyms.
Sometimes automated content uses words that are not appropriate for your article.
Paid links
Paid links can improve your ranking, but if Google finds that you are using paid links, then the danger of penalizing increases.
Why paid links are not useful because sometimes they are irrelevant and not suitable for your website.
Keyword stuffing
Keyword stuffing is the technique of inserting particular keywords again and again in your article. The primary purpose is to rank on a specific search query. Abnormally inserting the keywords.
Inappropriate content
Putting brawl; duplicate content on your website. Your content should be relevant and of good quality.
Low-value backlinks
If you are getting backlinks from the low-value website or low-quality website, then Google can penalize those links.
Irregular outbound links
To improve the search engine ranking, some of the website users start to buy and sell links. The google penalizes your website if you notice these kinds of activities.
Secret blog network
The secret blog network is those that are owned by you to exchange links. Google can analyze the excessive exchange of links between your website and private blog and can penalize your website.
Website hacks
Website hacksThe hackers redirect your website to spam or illegal sites or directories. Your website becomes unsafe for the users and that’s why google penalizes your website.
How to check your website is penalized?
- If you find any warning message in the webmaster tools, you have to log in to the google webmaster tool and their check messages in the manual action.
- Sudden loss in website organic traffic
- A decrease in conversion rates
- If you do not get your website in the top 10 results for a particular query
- Analyze your page rank to check the time of rapid decrease in ranking
How to deal with penalties?
Algorithmic penalty
To check the penalty related to the algorithmic update, check the sudden drop in traffic compare the time period when you lost traffic with the date of launching of a new algorithmic update. To avoid getting penalized with the algorithmic update, you should follow Google webmasters on Facebook and YouTube to stay up to date.
Manual penalty
Go to the webmaster tool and analyze the bad and spam links. Identify which links are natural, suspicious, or spam. You can use link classification tools that check the quality of your links and then grade them.
When you identify the spam or suspicious links, remove them and then contact the webmasters and notify them that you have removed all the bad links. If you don’t get any response from the google webmaster, then you can use the Google disavow tool to mark the links that should be ignored during Google valuation.
At last, message Google from webmaster tools to confirm that you have taken action to resolve the problem, and you have made changes in your SEO strategy.
How to avoid the penalty?
- Follow Google guidelines properly
- Stay tuned with the latest google algorithm update
- Don’t buy and sell links
- Don’t copy-paste content or steal content from another website
- Avoid keyword stuffing
- Always check your backlinks on a regular basis
- Choose a good hosting company
- Follow Google webmaster on facebook and youtube
Author’s Bio
Hitesh Khurana is a Digital Marketing Executive at Quantum IT innovation, a reputed Mobile app development company in the UK. Along with writing for the company he is an admirer of classic literature, drama, and a true cinephile. You can find him writing meaningful poetry when he is not busy with his dog.
