In this article, we will share practical tips to help you prevent Google penalties and reliable ways to protect your online presence.
What is the Google penalty?
If one day you find your website doesn't rank with your targeted keywords or is no longer listed on search results, this is a Google penalty. This is an action taken by Google that negatively affects a website's search rankings. Consequently, if your target audience can’t find you, website traffic will drop.
Why does Google do it?
Using black hat SEO tactics or any other actions to manipulate search engine algorithms to increase a site's rankings on SERPs is one reason Google can penalize your website.
There are two types of penalties: Algorithmic or Manual Action.
Manual penalties are actions made by Google employees:
You can check if your site is affected by a manual action in the Google Search Console -> Manual actions:
An algorithmic penalty occurs automatically, without any direct involvement from Google staff. Unlike manual penalties, algorithmic penalties will not come with a notification, so if you notice that your organic traffic is dropping, that is a hint that you have been penalized.
So what you should avoid to not get penalized:
Unnatural links to your site.
- paid links
- blog comment spam
-numerous link exchanges
- forum spam
- links created using automated programs/services
- requiring a link within Terms of Service or similar agreements without giving an option to approve the outbound link
Link spam is one of the many types of black hat SEO, a technique where a website generates low-quality and spammy backlinks. As we all know, backlinks are used to increase a website's page rank, but if a backlink is not natural, it doesn’t have value for search engines and can even harm your rankings.
Cloaking
-implementing hidden text
-user agent cloaking
-HTTP Accept-Language Cloaking
-IP cloaking
Cloaking is also a black hat SEO technique; it involves presenting different content or URLs to search engine crawlers than what a website's visitors see. It gives search engines a different version of a website to manipulate its ranking in SERPs. There are a variety of different forms of cloaking, but all of them are considered to be against webmaster guidelines:
Hidden Text
-hiding text behind the image
-adjusting font size or opacity to zero for text invisibility
-using white text on a white background
-applying CSS to position text off-screen and keep it out of view
Hidden text refers to any text on a webpage that users can’t see but search engines can read. It is commonly used to manipulate search rankings by inserting keywords or links that may be irrelevant or misleading.
Keyword stuffing
Keyword stuffing involves unnaturally stuffing keywords to enhance ranking for that specific term. Google views this practice as spam and includes it in its spam policies.
Keyword stuffing may occur not only content of your page but also other places:
title tag example: Best Cheap Shoes | Best Cheap Running Shoes | Best Cheap Athletic Shoes
Meta description example: Looking for the best cheap shoes? Our best running shoes, athletic shoes and comfortable shoes are the best cheap shoes. Buy our best shoes for your best experience.
Also check your URLs, anchor texts and alt texts and make sure there is no keyword stuffing there.
Doorways
Doorways, or Gateway or Bridge Pages or Jump Pages are low-quality, low value pages that were built to rank high for specific keyword or search terms by stuffing in keywords. Rather than providing information on the keyword it ranks for , doorway pages link or redirect the user back to a different page on your site through a “doorway” and offer a little value to readers by itself.
As an example, imagine you have a main page focused on Best Man Shoes, and you create 10 pages like this:
-
Best Men’s Shoes in Detroit
-
Best Men’s Shous in New York
-
Best Men’s Shoes in California
-
Best Men’s Shoes in Colorado
Duplicate content
Duplicate content or scraped content occurs when you take/copy information from one website, often more reputable, and place it on another website.
This looks like publishing copied content without adding something new to it/modifying it a little, and placing copied videos, pictures, or other compiled content from other websites without adding unique content. Google recognizes duplicate content and has the full authority to penalize such websites.
Structured Data Spam
Adding structured data to your website is always a good practice. But incorrect implementation can lead to a Google penalty:
-
Fake Rich Snippets Reviews
-
Inappropriate structured data - when your website is offering a service, but you are using structured data for a product
-
The information on your website is different from the information given in the structured data.
Thin affiliate pages
Simply participating in an affiliate program doesn’t make a website a thin affiliate. But if you create a website stuffed with affiliate links without providing any original content, value, or service of its own, this can be considered a thin affiliate.
Add extra details to your page, like prices or product testings, ratings, product comparison, etc.
To sum it up, avoiding Google penalties is crucial for a healthy online presence. If you observe a drop in traffic or suspect a potential Google penalty, reach out to our team for expert assistance.
