Have you ever experienced a sudden drop in your website’s traffic? Then it may be possible because of Google’s penalties. Google has a particular benchmark to rank websites, and Google changes it on a regular basis. So you have to stay updated with Google’s every new algorithm and keep your website of high quality to avoid these types of penalties from Google. Through this blog, today we will learn how one can avoid Google’s penalties and skyrocket its ranking on SERP.
What is Google Penalty?
If your website properly does not follow Google’s guidelines called “Google Search Essentials” then it may receive a punishment which is known as Google Penalty. Due to this penalty, your website’s ranking can fall off or Google can even remove your website from Google’s search results. Mostly human reviewers of Google question this type of penalty.
Types of Google Penalty
Manual Actions
- Imposed by Google’s search quality raters.
- Require a fix to the issue and a reconsideration request submitted through Search Console.
- Indicate a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Algorithmic Penalties
- Automatically applied by Google’s algorithms.
- Triggered by violations of Google’s quality guidelines.
Examples
- Penguin: Targeting spammy link profiles.
- Panda: Penalizing low-quality content.
- Mobile-First Indexing: Demoting sites with poor mobile usability.
- Core Updates: Broad algorithm adjustments affecting site ranking.
Reasons for Google Penalties
Here are some main reasons for Google Penalties:
- Keyword stuffing
- Hidden links or text on a website
- Google’s algorithm updates
- User-generated spam
- Cloaking
- Issue in content
- Deceptive redirects
How to Avoid Google Penalties?
After knowing the basic information about Google penalties now we will see three solutions that help in avoiding the trouble of Google penalties and make your website free from penalty.
Eliminate Technical Error
To stay away from Google penalties, it is important that the technical part of your website is error-free. Here technical SEO becomes a must. For that, your website must load fast, with no duplicate content, and use HTTPS form. You can also use a sitemap to enhance indexability. Doing the technical SEO of your website from a well-known company like Thanksweb can help you a lot in avoiding penalties.
Create an Authoritative Backlink Profile
Your website can escape from Google Penalty by doing proper off-page SEO. In it, one important thing is having a natural backlink profile. With the help of this profile, you can view the potency of your website. You can also gain links from various different platforms. With its help, you prove to Google that your website follows Google’s guidelines properly and protects your website from Google Penalty.
To know about your website’s backlink profile use tools like SEMrush Backlink Audit. To Use it first log in to SEMrush and you can see the screen as shown below. Here click on Backlink Audit then paste your website’s link in the box and click on the Start Backlink Audit button. After that, you can see the complete report of your website.
Craft Rich Content for Your Website Regularly
“Content is king” is not just a popular idiom; it must be reflected in your website. Because content is the only thing that speaks on your behalf and on your website. You can engage and motivate more visitors with this content. Google prioritizes websites whose content is more logical, well-researched, and written and pushes them upward on the SERPs, which will reduce your chance of getting penalties. Also, keep in mind not to incorporate many keywords forcefully.
How to Recover from a Google Penalty
Recovering from a Google penalty can be challenging. It’s crucial to understand that there are two primary types:
- Manual Actions: These are issued by Google employees after a review, typically for violations of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines (e.g., spammy links, cloaking, hidden text).
- Recovery: Requires fixing the issue and submitting a reconsideration request in Google Search Console.
- Algorithmic Penalties: Triggered automatically by Google’s algorithms, often due to changes in their ranking factors (e.g., Panda for thin content, Penguin for unnatural links).
- Recovery: Involves identifying and addressing the underlying issues (e.g., improving content quality, cleaning up your link profile).
Conclusion
Staying on the top in SERP is a very important thing for all websites. For that, it is mandatory that you follow every guideline of Google and do not get Google penalties. You can avoid it by doing impactful on-page, off-page, and technical SEO. Thanksweb has a great master touch in all types of SEO that can protect your website from Google penalties and make your brand the next big thing.