What to Do When Your Site Has Been Penalized
If your website has suddenly seen a dramatic drop in traffic and clicks, it’s possible that your site has been hit with a penalty. This means that your site has violated one or more of Google’s best practices. Your website will not appear in Google search results until you fix the issues, file an appeal with Google, and the reviewers at Google decide to remove the penalty.Â
Since this can be a lengthy and technical process, we recommend that you trust our SEO experts at SEO Design Chicago with your Google penalty recovery process.Â
The Importance of SEO
One of the top sources of traffic for all websites is organic search. No matter your industry, ranking on Google is the most important thing you can do to help potential customers find you. This is why search engine optimization is crucial to your marketing strategy and why it is vital to quickly recover from a Google penalty to restore your position in search results.
Types of Google Algorithmic Penalties
A recent algorithm update to Google Search has changed the way website content and technical SEO are evaluated. These automatic systems help make sure that when we use Google, we are receiving high-quality matches to our search queries.Â
These updates are designed to check for low-quality and spammy content on websites. The two most recent updates that affect organic traffic to your website are likely Google Penguin and Google Panda.Â
Google Penguin
Penguin checks for low-quality backlinks pointing to your website or blog. This is designed to ensure that sites with real, high-quality backlinks from a wide variety of sources are ranked higher.Â
Receiving a penguin penalty means that Google has flagged your site for low-quality backlinks. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have done anything against Google’s policies. The websites linking back to your site could themselves be flagged for duplicate content, spammy content, misleading tags, or a wide variety of other issues.Â
Our experts can check for these kinds of links and help clean out sites that are contributing to your own link penalty. We will distinguish the good links from the bad ones—removing too many links can further reduce your standing in the search results, causing additional problems.Â
Google Panda
The second recent core update that might have affected your rankings is Google Panda. This type of penalty means that something in the content on your site has been flagged.
Common causes of this kind of penalty by Google include low-quality or duplicate content, AI-generated content, and keyword stuffing.
According to a Google statement, AI-generated content that is used solely to “manipulate search results” will violate its spam policy and is likely to trigger manual penalties.
Websites with informative, high-quality content rank higher in search results. If your site has too many low-value blog posts or pages that are stuffed with strings of meaningless keywords, this can get your website penalized.
Types of Google Manual Action Penalties
In addition to the Panda and Penguin algorithmic penalties, there are also manual penalties. This means that a member of Google’s team has flagged your website for violating their webmaster guidelines. Like with the algorithmic penalties, these can be difficult to identify.Â
If you’re trying to determine which types of Google manual action penalty your site has received, you will likely need the help of professional SEO services, like the full SEO audit we offer at SEO Design Chicago.Â
We will run a full audit with our Google penalty checker and develop a recovery plan tailored to help you recover from a manual penalty.Â
While there are many types of Google penalties, a few of the most common manual penalties include:
- Keyword stuffing – Including long strings of keywords that have nothing to do with your site’s contentÂ
- User-generated spam – This can come from comments, social media posts, and user profiles
- Hidden text or keywords – Google penalizes sites that try to “sneak” in extra keywords by hiding them in background text
- Structured markup – When used appropriately, this helps search engines properly index your site. If the markup doesn’t match the actual content of the site, you will be penalized.Â
- Redirects – Excessive or misleading redirects can trigger a penalty, as it appears your website is trying to hide under a different title.Â
Google can review many more technical elements. The best strategy is to request an audit of your website to quickly resolve problems in your site’s design and restore your credibility with Google.Â
Why Choose SEO Design Chicago for your Penalty Recovery Process
Combing through your website’s content, design, and code to identify a Google penalty can be a painstaking process. Our digital marketing professionals at SEO Design Chicago have an in-depth knowledge of Google penalty issues and SEO best practices.Â
We can help you quickly identify the penalties that Google has imposed on your website and create a recovery strategy. This minimizes the damages that will be done to your revenue and helps your business appear in search results again.Â
We have documented success in helping other businesses remove their Google penalties. Our team will:
- Identify and remove low-quality backlinks
- Analyze your website’s user experienceÂ
- Review your content strategyÂ
- Provide ongoing monitoringÂ
Once you have restored your site to a solid footing, consider our content services or SEO management teams to help you manage your site going forward.
Timeline of RecoveryÂ
Google does not notify individual website owners or managers when they receive a penalty. You will likely suspect that something has gone wrong if your traffic and conversions dramatically drop.Â
Once you’ve determined that your site has been penalized, you need to discover why. Then, you need to spend additional time fixing each problem—links, content, UX, keywords, images, and more. Finally, after all these errors have been fixed, you need to request a review of your penalty by Google to have the penalty removed.Â
According to Google’s policies, a review of a manual action report can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.Â
This can spell disaster for your revenue. Each day that your website isn’t listed in search results represents a dramatic loss of traffic and conversions.Â
At SEO Design Chicago, our expert recovery services can help you resolve manual or algorithmic penalties more quickly. This means you are less likely to have to submit multiple appeals for review and restore your SEO strategy more quickly.
Request a free consultation to see how SEO Design Chicago can help your website rank in search results!
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