Google penalties can hit unexpectedly and without warning. When these penalties occur it can cause major problems with the website’s SEO health. The increase in new algorithm updates makes Google tighten its standards more and more to catch websites who are operating just outside of the guidelines of search engines.
When hit with a penalty the repercussions result in their rankings to slip and their revenue to plunge. So how are you able to prevent Google Penalties, you ask? There are a few different ways, however, you first need to know what types of Google penalties there are.
Table of Contents
1. Google Panda Penalty
Google Panda isn’t new and has been a part of Google’s algorithm since Feb 2011. The idea of Google Panda is to prevent any poor content from reaching the top of search engine results. If a website has low content quality, then you’re more than likely going to get hit with a Panda penalty. So how do you prevent getting hit with a Google penalty?
Solution
Create original, high quality, and unique content that offers some decent information and text. Avoid thin content and take initiative in eliminating duplicate pages. Content should be useful to the reader and should be written in good form with minimal spelling and grammar errors.
2. Google Penguin Penalty
Penguin by Google is designed to combat against link spamming and other webspam. Google Penguin will generally issue a penalty when there’s a lot of incoming links from webpages and when there’s a lot of unnatural or deceptive backlinks.
Google takes this as manipulating the search rankings which then causes the penalty to come down hard. So how do you prevent this from happening?
Solution
Avoid selling, buying, negotiating or participating in link farms or link exchanges. Also, avoid engaging in any form of unnatural linking as this will signal to Google and will cause a penalty to be issued. You can generally tell when a penguin penalty has been issued because your organic traffic will suddenly drop off. To prevent this, you should look into removing any links and monitoring backlinks that could potentially hurt your rankings.
3. Payday Loan Penalty
The Google Payday Loan update is designed to address quality results for heavily spammed queries such as Viagra, payday loans and other porn-related keywords. When Google sees these words being used in an unnatural way or spammy way, it will cause a penalty to hit hard.
Solution
Avoid using spam emails and other links to schemes which are illegal. Avoid spamming with these targeted keywords, and avoid conducting or being associated with those who do. In taking on these activities you have a high chance of losing more than your organic search engine rankings.
5. Manual actions
Manual action penalties are generally completed when Google suspects foul play or wants to take a much closer look at your website. They may also be issued if your website is being re-evaluated and has requested re-indexing.
Solution
To avoid a manual action penalty generally, you need to keep inside the Google Webmaster Guidelines. Most manual penalties are issued because you are outside of these guidelines.
Other reasons you may be hit with a Google penalty is because your content is too thin, you have unnatural links, you have too much spam, or you have another issue that you will be notified about by Google. By avoiding these key areas, you are less likely to receive a Google Penalty.
Conclusion
Google plays hard when it comes to people doing the wrong thing. Getting a penalty is something that you want to avoid in order to maintain your position on SERP. As you can see there are a few ways you can easily prevent a penalty from occurring. Have you had a Google Penalty before?