Google Penalty Advice

Google Penalty

To check for Google penalties with any degree of certainty can be difficult. For example, if your website experiences a sudden reduction in ranking for its main keyword terms it can be caused solely by a Google algorithm change or search results (SERP) update.

With any algorithm change or Google SERP update, there are always winners and losers, and when a sudden drop in rankings is experienced Google penalties are often incorrectly blamed.

If you suspect a Google penalty, it first makes sense to check whether any Google algorithm changes have been made which could be the cause of the problem

That said, if your web site suffers sudden and dramatic fall in ranking and no Google algorithm changes have been made, then a Google penalty may be the cause, especially if you have been embarking on activities which might have contravened Google's Webmaster Guidelines. The most severe Google penalties lead to total website de-indexing and where the SEO misdemeanor is serious a site ban may be imposed by Google, accompanied by a Page Rank reduction to 0.

Initial Test For a Penalty

When a penalty is suspected, start by checking with Google the number of URL's it has indexed. This can be accomplished by using the site:yourdomainname command within a Google search window. If no URL's are indexed and no backlinks show up when the link:yourdomain.com is entered then there is a high probability of a Google penalty, especially if your site used to be indexed and used to show backlinks. The exception to this rule is a new website with few backlinks, which may not be Google indexed since it is still waiting to be crawled. Such websites frequently show no backlinks, but this doesn't imply they have received a Google penalty!

To avoid a Google penalty or SERPS filter, take particular care when embarking on any link building program. In particular, avoid reciprocal link exchange becoming the main-stay of your SEO campaign.

If you suspect your website has received a Google penalty, you can contact Google by sending an e-mail to help@google.com to ask for help. They will usually check the spam report queue and offer some form of assistance.

Interestingly, in a recent move by Google, web sites which are in clear violation of Google's webmaster guidelines or terms of service may receive an e-mail from Google advising them to clean up their act, warning of a penalty and website de-indexing. When the breach of Google's terms (e.g. spam or hidden text) is removed from the offending site, Google will usually automatically clear the penalty and re-index the site when the webmaster completes a Google re-inclusion request

If your website has suffered a Google penalty, take some free SEO advice to help identify the cause and solve the problem.

There are different types of penalty and you can suffer from any one of them. Some of them are: Google’s Minus 30 Penalty, Google’s Minus 50 Penalty & so on.

Google’s Minus 30 Penalty also known as the “4 pages back penalty” is not a permanent penalty. It usually results in your website dropping 30 spots lower in Google’s index and like this others are so on.

 

Note: In my next post, I will mention a Google Penalty Checklist that point out some of the mistakes through which a website suffers from a Google penalty.