subject: What Are Google Penalties and How You Can Avoid Them? [print this page] What Are Google Penalties and How You Can Avoid Them?
Keep reading to learn more about these penalties and to find out how to avoid them.
Avoiding Confusion
Before delving deeper into Google's penalties for unethical websites, it's better to clarify one common misconception. Some webmasters, seeing that their SERP rank has unexpectedly changed, and knowing that they haven't done anything bad, start blaming Google, accusing it of bulling the wrong website. What these webmasters don't take into account is that Google's algorithms are constantly updated and that their fall in rankings might be entirely due to it. Because there isn't a standard way of checking whether or not a website has been penalized, it's advisable to keep in touch with an online community of webmasters, where it's likely that significant changes in the algorithm will be first noticed and discussed. Fluctuations with the high-performance keywords are a good example of such changes that create confusion.
How You Can Get In Trouble
You can invite a penalty from Google if the website you manage is participating in reciprocal linking or paid link ads. Additionally, you can also get in trouble involuntarily, if you're careless enough to submit your URL to poor directories or link farms while in the process of creating backlinks. There are a few other practices that can bring you problems with a search engine, but generally they require voluntary involvement on your part, whereas these occur much more frequently and can arise out of sheer negligence.
Many websites are constantly being devalued by Google for two simple reasons: they rely exclusively on backlinks from cheap directories, which are not well seen by search engines, or have built a large cluster of backlinks from completely irrelevant websites. Avoiding these two errors after you make a website drastically decreases your chances of getting penalized. Don't expect links to propel you right into the top positions of the SERP when you haven't been around for long, instead try to establish yourself by adding quality content.
Recognizing a Penalty
As previously mentioned, there is no precise method of finding out whether or not you've been sanctioned. Assuming that you notice a sharp decline in your SERP position that you cannot explain, and also that you've already talked with other webmasters and you're absolutely certain that it's not all due to a recent change in the algorithm, then you should carry out two simple tests.
The first implies the comparison of the total figure of the URLs indexed previously with that of the latest index. Do this be searching on Google for your website ("site:yourwebsite.com" or "link:yourwebsite.com"). If nothing comes up then it's likely that you've been penalized. The second test involves noticing a drop-off in your company's rank. This is less accurate that the first test because if your website is a new one with few links it's not likely it will show up in Google's SERP.
In addition, you can also look at any changes in your Page Rank, even though this is no longer wholly reliable, or find out if you've been completely de-indexed by searching on Google for a web page ("cache:www.yourwebsite.com/one-of-your-pages.html") and seeing if anything pops-up. If no results appear you've been de-indexed.
Types of Penalties
If you're completely certain you've been penalized then you must first identify what for before you can try to address the issue and contact Google requesting for a reassessment of your website and a re-inclusion into the SERP. Next are listed some of the most frequent practices that make Google take action and give a penalty.
Building backlinks with websites that violate Google's policies and have been or are in the process of being banned. Check and double-check your outgoing links.
Collaborating with spam websites with whom you share links. Ensure that you don't share links with doorway or spam websites that exist for the sole purpose of promoting links and are despised by Google.
Owning multiple websites interrelated to each other and using heavy interlinking. Google tends to punish many of those carrying out link schemes in order to boost the visibility of their websites; make sure all you do is in agreement with the search engine's user policy.
Being in the habit of masking links in your text. If you try to conceal the links in text by using the same fonts and colors you might trick people to click them, but not Google's crawlers. Keep your links clearly visible.
Stuffing your content with keywords. This is not too different from spamming, so ensure that your content has the accepted keyword densities.
Make sure you read Google's Webmaster Guidelines before you make a website and avoid the practices listed above and you will not invite any penalties that have the potential to affect your website's reputation.
