We all love Google, and Google loves us too. Where there is love, there is trust and some rules to abide. Similarly, when Google gives a platform to grow your reach and business, it also monitors if you are using it the right way or not. Google can penalize your website for real. Yes, Google Penalty sounds horrifying to many Webmasters. There is a reason behind it. A penalty by Google has the potential to bring your website back on ground zero or at least impact your website to a large extend. Well, no one wants this to happen. If we look it from Google’s side, it is fair enough to penalize websites that try to play over-smart and find unethical tricks to rank faster on Google search.
Never try to Outplay Google
Yes, this is the pro advice that we can give from our years of experience. A penalty from Google can mean your website is no more indexed in Google Search or the website ranking has dropped dramatically. The reasons for the penalty are many. However, we have listed down the few most common penalties below.
- Unnatural Linking ( link buying, exchanging links, link submission in spam directories, comment linking, etc.)
- Duplicate Content ( Content repetition on website or plagiarism)
- Link Selling (excessive outbound links indicates the sale of links)
- Less Content ( Lack of content or repetitive content)
- Keyword Stuffing (excessive Keywords in the page)
- Cloaking ( displaying multiple website version to search engine)
Types of Google Penalties
Google uses various approaches to evaluate websites. It uses both-human observation and AI technology to give the best user experience to their visitors. There are two types of penalties that you may get hit by.
Manual Penalty –
Google Experts review your website and find some suspicious viruses, hidden text or links, spyware, keyword stuffing, content duplication, cloaking, adware, or more. When you are manually penalized, Google informs you about it and lists down the changes you can make. You can check your manual penalty on Google Console. Once you see, there is a penalty listed, fix the issues and submit a reconsideration request to Google. Often only some webpages get penalized and not the whole website. However, you must get your act together as soon as possible.
Algorithmic Penalty-
As the name suggests, these penalties are automatic. Your website can get penalized due to an algorithmic update. Unfortunately, there is no way to know about this type of penalty unless you keep monitoring your website traffic. The most common after-effect of this penalty is a drastic drop in the website’s organic traffic. Getting back to the previous rank and traffic may take time, and in some cases, another update can only improve your organic traffic statistics. So, fix and wait!
How to check Google Penalty?
It is always advised to keep Google Penalty on a check. Manier times people work on SEO strategies extensively but do not consider checking on the Google penalty. Well, never ignore Google Penalties. If Google can make your business, it can bash your website for using wrong tactics to rank. And it is fair enough.
There are two ways to find if your website got penalized by Google. Let’s check it out.
Google Search Console
This one is simple. Login to your Google Search Console account. Go to -> Manual Action section and check your penalty. If you see the penalty, start working on it and fix it. In case you see the message “No Issues Detected” hooray! You have no manual penalty on your website. So far, so good. Keep healthy Webmaster practices. Google Search Console can only show a manual penalty. If you need to find an algorithmic penalty, go for the second way.
Google Analytics
If you are an SEO professional, this way will come very handy to you. Simply go to your Dashboard -> Acquisition -> All Traffic -> Source/ Medium. If you feel suspicious about traffic loss and penalty relation, compare your daily traffic before and after the algorithm update to find out the penalty possibility. Since Google explains what their algorithm update offers, you can cross-check and fix the problem areas. The after-effects of algorithm change last for a few months or until the next update. Till then, work on improving other aspects of On-page and Off-page SEO to make a faster recovery.
The penalty is not always the right answer!
Yes, we just explained to you the ways to find algorithmic penalties. One of the prominent indicators is a drop in organic traffic. But, every time penalty cannot be the case. Your website often tends to lose ranking as the competition increases or your user starts losing interest in your offerings. Do observe the decreasing traffic pattern. If you feel it can be because of some other reasons, start your SEO strategies immediately. Optimize your website, do the Technical SEO, go for Off-page SEO, and start posting engaging content on social media to bring traffic from targeted sources. Keep one thing in mind; there is no blueprint to stay on the #1 of SERPs as the algorithm changes; it brings brownie points to some websites and failure for some. Stay updated with algorithm updates; keep your SEO on point, and enjoy your digital journey.
Fixing Google Penalties and making website error-free is not everyone’s cup of tea. You may find it a troublesome affair. However, at Aarna System, it is part of work, and we love to do it. We are a growing SEO company in India. Our SEO experts can make your website, not just penalty-free but also rank on the top of SERPs. Get set to give a tough digital competition and win quality traffic. Let’s grow your business!
