Ever heard about a penalty in ice hockey? Yes, a player or team is punished for an infringement of the rules. Google applies the same logic to punish websites that have done something wrong. We are aware that SEO is a complicated campaign. At times, we can get the website penalized by a Google algorithm update or manual action without any wrong intentions.
But what is a Google penalty? And how to fix them? This article will help you determine if your site has been penalized and show you what to do to improve the penalties.
Like the sports penalty, the Google penalty is an action taken by Google if your website disobeys the webmaster guidelines. Google penalties are created to stop black-hat SEO tactics. However, they can also penalize websites that are following the right techniques but made an honest mistake.
Because of a Google penalty, your site will not be listed on search results. It may lower your ranking for your targeted keywords resulting in lower-traffic, ultimately dropping revenue.
Many reasons can cause Google Penalties, such as hidden links, plagiarized content, keyword stuffing, bad links and redirects, unrelated keywords, cloaking, virus, spyware, and other data issues. Black-hat techniques or wrongful techniques that attract more traffic by fooling search engine bots often trigger google penalties.
Mainly there are two different types of Google penalties:
1. Algorithmic Penalties: It is an automated action taken by Google’s algorithm against a site. Because of the highly complex algorithm, it lowers its search rankings.
2. Manual Penalties: are penalties given by Google employees for websites to ensure quality standards are followed. Your website will be manually penalized if it has issues like content quality, security, or manipulating Google’s algorithm using black hat SEO.
You may find many tools in the market that identify a Google penalty. But we will recommend you to use Google Search Console. It is a tool that indicates your penalties at no cost. Follow these steps to fix a penalty-
That’s it. Once you fix the problem and inform Google authorities, they will review and reindex your website. This means your site will recover from a manual penalty once you rectify the errors. The recovery process may take 10 to 30 days, depending on how quickly you find and fix the problem and submit it for review to get it approved.
A Google penalty will devalue your website in Google search, affecting the organic traffic, resulting in lower revenue. Yes, it can be a severe issue for websites that rely on web traffic for income. However, if you thoroughly follow Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, you will never face such challenges. And in case they penalize you, you can take the above steps to fix the Google Penalty. Since Google penalties can be costly, adhere to Google’s best practices to avoid penalties.
