subject: Does Google Punish You For Using The Same Theme? [print this page] Does Google Punish You For Using The Same Theme?
I came across this question today when looking at a new premium theme. I have heard over and over, "don't use the same theme for all your sites or Google will pick up on it and penalize you". As with most Google warnings I receive I usually don't take them 100% for the truth although there is usually a grain of truth somewhere in there.
Looking through Google's own FAQ, they deny that there is any relationship of repetitive theme use and ranking penalties. In fact, they state that poor content is the reason for Google penalties. I'm somewhat in agreement with them although I think there is a point in which other factors are considered and that initial trigger could be content related.
From the research I've been able to do, it would seem that this warning came from and applies to sites or developers who construct what is know as a link farm or blog farm. Google has stated that there is no problem linking to other related sites (even your own sites) if, and it's a big if, your content and sites are valuable and relevant. For this reason, I rarely link between any of my sites unless I'm absolutely sure of their content quality and relevance. Google is looking to penalize link farms or blog farms whose only function is to provide links to each other in an unnatural way.
What I've gathered from this investigation and what I can offer you is advice that has been repeated in other posts on this blog. Give the search engines what they want...good, relevant content. If you try to game the search engines or use some black hat method, chances are they will eventually get wise, and then you're screwed! I don't think that the theme you use has anything to do with Google penalties unless they are already looking into your activity. At that point it could appear that using the same theme is part of an automated system to flood poor quality sites onto the internet.
At some point in time I'll review the premium themes I've used and my "likes vs dislikes" for each one. In the meantime, focus on putting up good content and you'll never have any worries from Google or anyone else!
