What exactly are Google Penalties?
Google Penalties are a negative impact on a particular website which affects its ranking on the disobedience of certain guidelines.
Ranking factors determine search visibility but also penalties. Webmasters often manipulate algorithms to produce high page ranks. Over optimizing forces search engines to update algorithms.
When your rankings dip suddenly, it means you are penalized. Penalties can happen due to multiple updates in the same time period.
There are basically three types of penalties: manual, algorithmic, and both. Once penalized, it is a long hard way to earn your way back up. You can start by trying to determine what update took place, why, and how to correct the issue on your website. If your web-spam team is penalized by Google, you will have to file a reconsideration request after the fixing issue. This is a long and tough process and may take several attempts.
It is always wiser to be prudent and take measures to prevent your website from getting penalized.
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How To Avoid Google Penalties?
1. Always Follow Best Practices
A basic tip is to always follow the best practices laid out by Google. This includes high-quality content. Your home page is directly related to your ranking. If the home page is highly optimized, it reflects the authority of the site, hence enhancing the ranking. Outside links provide image validity and increase authority. Sites must be visible in the search; practices such as cloaking lead to penalties. Having a clear hierarchy and organized themes work towards a better search experience.
2. Monitor Analytics
Your analytics should be checked continuously for traffic. The movement of traffic in different time periods will help you compare and determine the ranking of the site. If the traffic has fallen suddenly, it means there is something wrong.
You can view your ranking history further to compare your keyword standing as well.
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3. Check Search Console
Whether you notice a change or not, it is always a good idea to keep checking your search console to see if you have been contacted about a penalty. Usually, Google will contact you informing you about why you have been penalized.
4. Keep A Lookout for Updates
Prevention is a cure. Hence be on a lookout for updates in the Google algorithm. The SEO community is quite supportive and provides a ton of blogs and forums to release relevant information about the same. They work together to uncover ranking factors and share them via blogs and articles. Google hardly announces updates unless they are major but it is wise to keep checking their official blog. Mozcast is a great way to study fluctuations in the algorithm and predict any changes on the way. Social media too can keep you updated on the same. The more accurate your predictions, the better it is for your website. And for accuracy, you need to be well informed.
5. Verify Health from Time to Time
Since search engines evolve regularly, it is smart to grow at the same pace. Keep a watch on the health of your backlink profile and general state of content. Try to keep up with the developments in the industry. Study competitor’s websites and keep improving.
To Sum Up
It can be challenging to predict, understand, and work on Google algorithm updates, but it is of utmost importance. It can determine the success of your site and as a webmaster, it is only profitable to stay up to date.
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