When it comes to SEO, tickets (officially known as “penalties”) given by Google have profound effects on websites’ livelihoods. In the real world, the consequences of a ticket can vary drastically, from a small sum of cash to a vehicle impounding, depending on the misdemeanor you commit. But, in search, Google reacts to violations with a very limited number of drastic punishments: deindexation and decreased rankings. In the following article, we will cover the types of penalties, what you can do to avoid getting a Google penalty, and what you should do if you get one.
Types of penalties
Google has two primary penalties in its arsenal of SEO policing efforts: manual and algorithmic penalties. Allow us to elaborate on the details of both penalties.
Manual penalties
Manual penalties are applied by Google’s team of manual reviewers. These penalties occur when a human reviewer at Google deems a webpage violates Google’s spam policies. According to Google, manual action penalties result in “sites being ranked lower or omitted from search results.” If you receive one of these penalties, you will know, because you’ll see a notice within your website’s Google Search Console. It’ll look like this:
Algorithmic penalties
An algorithmic penalty, on the other hand, well, it’s algorithmic. Google’s crawlers and algorithms can detect when a webpage or site is in violation of its spam policies. Google’s most popular updates, like Panda or Penguin, were responsible for dishing out a significant amount of penalties to websites in violation of link building guidelines.
Avoiding an SEO ticket
Avoiding a penalty from Google is simple, just play by the rules! In all seriousness, there are a few actionable steps that you can take to avoid getting a Google penalty.
Stay up to date on algorithms
Google regularly updates its algorithms, where it aims to refine ranking algorithms to rank content more fairly. The fun part about these ranking updates is that Google doesn’t give anyone a forewarning about their release. So, the best way to stay up to date on algorithm updates is to regularly check our running list of Google algorithm updates. Additionally, you could stay tuned into the Google Search Liaison account on X which announces algorithm updates as they roll out.
Practice white-hat SEO
As we mentioned, the best way to avoid a Google penalty or SEO ticket is to play by the rules. But, the better way to avoid penalties is to practice white hat SEO. White-hat SEO is the practice of optimizing websites in a way that aligns with Google’s search guidelines. Some examples of white-hat SEO tactics include:
- Not buying links
- Avoiding keyword cloaking
- Anything that is meant to game the algorithm
Keep an eye on penalties
Keeping an eye on penalties is pretty simple. All you need to do is set up Google Search Console. Google Search Console is a free SEO dashboard provided by Google that allows you to gain insight into your website’s performance. This tool shows you historical impressions, clicks, average position, and click-through rates for all the indexed pages on your websites. In addition, you can find out what keywords you are ranking for and the websites linking to your site.
Most importantly, you can stay tuned into any penalties that your site has been hit with. To locate these, open up your Search Console dashboard, and in the left panel, scroll down until you find “Security & Manual Actions.” Within this section, you’ll find the Manual Actions report that will show you if a human at Google has flagged your site.
Work with reputable agencies
If you like using agencies to handle your SEO needs, then there are most definitely some things you should do to ensure the agency you work with is avoiding penalties for your website. First off, be sure to read online reviews of the agencies that you are considering. This is a quickest way to get a feel for how other clients rate their work. Second, during your discovery call with them, ask them a few questions to understand their process when it comes optimizing client sites. Here are a few sample questions to ask:
- What’s your definition of white-hat SEO?
- Describe what an SEO strategy for my site might look like.
- What is your approach to link building?
By asking these few questions, you should be able to gain a good sense of how the agency approaches search engine optimization for clients.
If you get a penalty, here’s what you should do
We just shared how you can avoid a penalty but if you’ve already been hit with a penalty than that’s probably not much help. So, let’s get into what you should do to get you back in Google’s good graces if you’ve been given a ranking penalty!
Verify that you’ve gotten a penalty
Just because your site is experiencing a traffic drop, it doesn’t mean that you’ve been hit with a penalty or “shadow-banned.” So, before you jump to any conclusions, take the time to verify that you’ve, in fact, been struck with a Google penalty. The first thing you should do is take a look at each of your analytics platforms and analyze when the drop occurred. The goal here is to get a sense of which pages were affected, when they were affected, and understand the context around the issue your site is experiencing. Most importantly, check your Google Search Console! If you’ve actually been impacted by a penalty, Google will outline exactly what they flagged on your site.
Look into recent Google algorithm updates
If you find out that it is in fact a penalty you’ve been hit with, then your next step is to review all of Google’s recent algorithm updates. Familiarize yourself with what Google changed, what they’re cracking down on, or what they are now prioritizing to rank in search results. If you’ve been actively staying tuned into Google’s algorithm updates, then good for you, this step won’t feel too overwhelming when you’re battling with bigger issues!
Run a full-site audit
After updating yourself on Google’s latest algorithm updates, it’s time to perform a full-site audit. By reading Google’s notes regarding your penalty in Search Console, you should have a good understanding of what high-level issue needs to be addressed. Therefore, your site audit should be primarily focused on uncovering the group of pages, backlinks, or other aspects of your website that Google is calling into question. Be sure to complete a comprehensive site audit so you have an up-to-date benchmark and so you can get a comprehensive look at other issues that may be impacting your site’s performance.
Submit an update to Google
Once you’ve completed your site audit and fixed the issues called out in your penalty, you should now submit a reconsideration request to Google. In your request, detail all the changes you’ve made and provide Google with as much information as possible to prove the issues have been fixed.
Monitor performance results on Google Analytics, Search Console, and Semrush
After submitting your reconsideration request, be sure to monitor your site’s performance in the weeks and months following. Metrics like impressions, organic sessions, and rankings could be good indicators of site recovery.
Avoiding penalties once and for all
There’s a famous quote that you might be familiar with. Here’s how it goes, “It’s not how you fall that matters, it’s about how you land.” So, if you’re reading this article because you’ve been hit with a penalty then now is a great time to learn from your SEO mistakes. Make sure you follow the best practices we’ve outlined above and set processes to avoid future penalties once and for all. Working with a reputable agency that follows white-hat SEO techniques and plays by the rules to get you results is the first step. The redefine team is ready to step up, help you recover from your penalty and get your website’s performance back on track. Be sure to drop us a line when you are ready!
