Believe it or not, but if you want organic targeted traffic then Google is best! Making its way through all of these years, competing with other search engines.
Google has come a long way with frequent updates in its ranking algorithm every year. Aiming to provide the best quality content to the visitors, filtering the poor quality websites is mandatory.
Unfortunately, the sites that get filtered by Google have to bear the consequences. As a result, you may usually lose all or partial traffic that you received from Google.
Along with the trustworthiness you have created till now, Google may not consider your site worthy of displaying at the top.
How to check if your site has google penalties? with recovery tips!
It would be unfortunate to face such problems for any beginner blogger in the industry. As they’re still learning and growing as a successful blogger in the industry.
Facing such problems in the begging can be frustrating for sure. But if you are facing it right now or are not sure why your blog traffic has suddenly dropped or fluctuating, this article may help you.
What is a penalty from Google?
If you don’t have enough experience as a blogger, then Google penalties are something new for you.
Maybe you have heard about them, but you are not completely aware of them. Basically, Google penalties are actions taken directly from the Google search engine and its algorithm.
The effects will be negative for sure, as it’s a penalty for those who are breaking the rules. And regulations or not following the official guidelines properly.
To stay at the top of SERPs in Google, you need to reconsider a lot of things. From SEO to community guidelines you have to take care of everything. Because if someone is trying to create a conflict while not following the marketing practices enforced by Google, getting penalized is obvious.
Why does Google penalize sites?
Waking up the next morning and seeing your traffic drop suddenly isn’t pleasing at all. One of the reasons that can cause a huge drop in your traffic, is the Google penalty that comes in different variants.
You can get a penalty from Google for various reasons, that depends on the methods and actions taken from your side.
Finding shortcuts for ranking higher than other blogs is a very common thing. Unfortunately, following such methods without further thinking can cause you trouble.
Here we have mentioned some of them and the penalty they receive for such activities.
Spam
Spamming is one of the most common reasons why Google penalizes the sites and restricts them from growing any further in the same niche.
Mentioning the URL of your blog in the comments section of any popular blog In the same niche as yours can help you generate some quality links. But people take it as a way to build unlimited backlinks start spamming their URL everywhere!
So when the site gets crawled such links are considered spam, and when the crawlers find the same URL on more than one site they mark it as a source of spam.
If you don’t wish to face something like this, stop spamming your URL everywhere!
Black hat techniques
SEO specialists and tech experts are always ready to find the loopholes and use them to their advantage.
Doesn’t matter whether it’s related to algorithm updates, system structure improvement, or any other changes.
Using blackhat techniques to get ahead of others and grab higher positions in SERP rankings is not recommended at all.
Google and other search engines strictly suggest that bloggers and web developers should stop relying on such methods. As it will cost them in the long run, when Google finds out them.
New bloggers get easily distracted by such temporary success and start looking for ways to implement such blackhat techniques to grow quickly.
In the end, they have to deal with penalties from Google for using such methods.
Poor performance
Google believes in providing the best of the best to its customers. Always looking for quality content with reliable sources of information Google promotes those who fulfill its requirements.
A site with responsive design, a user-friendly interface, quality backlinks, and well-formatted content will always be on the top. Compared to a site that is not structured properly, doesn’t publish quality content regularly, and lower domain authority will get pushed down automatically.
Duplicated content
Plagiarized or duplicated content can be found easily, as it’s a lot easier to copy content from other sites rather than creating it.
A lot of people try to copy content from quality sites and use it on their blogs. Unfortunately, when Google crawlers will notice this, your site will get penalized. Making you lose your rankings or any progress you have made using the plagiarized content from others!
How to check if your site has any penalties?
Novice bloggers may not be able to find out the penalties or problems in the starting stage of their journey.
However, it’s not something to worry about as we have created a list of all penalties that you can receive from Google.
In order to find these penalties, you’ll have to pay close attention to the current progress reports. And the best way to get all the information at once is to have a glance at the google analytics dashboard.
It also provides any updates regarding any penalties from Google. So make sure to check the dashboard frequently to stay updated regarding any changes in ranking and traffic fluctuations.
Because the best way to identify a penalty is to pay attention to your ranking positions and performance graph.
If you find your traffic dropping suddenly and losing your stronghold at the top positions. Then it’s more likely because of a penalty you received for violating Google terms and using prohibited methods.
1. manual penalty ( directly from google spam team )
Google hates content, sites, review, and everything related to spam. As it focuses on providing the best possible quality results to their user base.
There’s no space for spammy content or sites, in fact, they have a team especially for dealing with problems related to spam.
Whenever the algorithm finds something suspicious or spammy, the URL is later forwarded to the team. To check the site content and decide whether it complies with the guidelines or not.
If it does violate them, manual action is taken and a partial or site-wide penalty is implemented accordingly. Making your site and its content disappear completely or partially from the ranking positions they had.
2. algorithmic penalty (automatically based on an algorithm )
Google has its own algorithms for almost everything, to keep an eye on any ongoing illegal activities on the internet.
Allowing them to decrease the workload on manpower, using different algorithms to deal with such problems is very useful.
From detecting blogs with very thin or no content, link generation bots, and similar blackhat techniques used by others.
The algorithm is capable to point out such issues and deal with them by penalizing them accordingly.
How to recover from Google penalties?
Recovering from Google penalties has never been easy. Because once your site receives a penalty from Google it affects the ranking positions.
Along with the trust you have created by providing quality content until now. So how you can actually tackle such a problem and what type of actions you should take to recover from these annoying penalties?
Don’t worry we’re here to help you.
Assuming that you have already identified the type of penalty and effects on your blog. You can take further actions accordingly to save yourself from losing your ranking positions for different keywords.
Let’s take a look at what kind of possible actions you should take to increase your chances of recovering from the penalty quickly!
- Even if you do find the type of penalty, you can not fix it completely by following any methods.
- The negative effects caused by the penalty won’t disappear instantly.
- But if you do take considerate actions and follow the guidelines regularly.
- Giving preference to white hat promotion techniques.
- Publishing quality content regularly till the next update.
- Removing any harmful backlinks and stopping other blackhat activities is the only choice you have.
The majority of these tips are regular practices that a professional blogger must follow to maintain quality and quantity.
Analyze your current strategy and make necessary changes to make sure you won’t get penalized again.
Conclusion
Getting affected by a Google penalty is like a nightmare for almost everyone. But if you are prepared enough to tackle such time to time updates from Google. Then you don’t have to worry about receiving a penalty.
Adhere to webmaster guidelines strictly and follow the tips from this article if you wanna keep your blog safe from penalties.
Do share this article with others and mention any suggestions or queries you have in the comments section.