{"id":62876,"date":"2019-03-12T20:51:47","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T03:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/?page_id=62876"},"modified":"2023-09-17T21:01:41","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T04:01:41","slug":"avoiding-google-penalties","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/seo\/avoiding-google-penalties\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding Google Penalties"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A penalty is<\/strong> when you get caught breaking the search engine’s rules, and they punish you. As the saying goes, if you can’t do the time, then don’t do the crime<\/em>. And losing all rankings for years makes for a tough lesson.<\/p>\n How can you avoid Google penalties and protect your website’s SEO visibility? This topic is vital because a search engine penalty can reduce or even wipe out your search traffic \u2014 and it can be costly and difficult to recover.<\/p>\n With every new algorithm update, Google seems to tighten its standards a little more. Websites operating just outside search engine guidelines can get caught. If your site is penalized, you can expect your rankings to slip and revenues to fall.<\/p>\n From an SEO perspective, the term \u201cpenalty\u201d means any negative impact on a website\u2019s organic search rankings caused by an algorithm update or a manual action.<\/strong><\/p>\n Anything that directly violates Google\u2019s Webmaster Guidelines can<\/em> result in a penalty against your website. The two main types are algorithm-based<\/em>, which is automatic, and manual<\/em>, which is an intentional penalization for “black hat” actions.<\/p>\n Though Google doesn\u2019t call algorithmic hits \u201cpenalties\u201d per se, the result feels the same to a website owner. It\u2019s as if somebody threw down a penalty flag against your site.<\/p>\n You can take steps to minimize the factors that contribute to SEO penalties. Here are the top 3 guidelines to avoid a penalty:<\/p>\n Penalties range from a slight, temporary ranking hit (a slap on the wrist) all the way to expulsion from the search engine’s index.<\/p>\n Don’t let the cute black-and-white animals fool you. Search engine algorithms have teeth in them and can bite sites that seem to be breaking the rules.<\/p>\n Note: We go into detail on Google algorithm updates<\/a> and how to prepare for them on our blog.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Panda update was in February 2011, with the first of many rollouts. By early 2016, Panda had grown up and become part of Google’s core algorithm<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Google Panda algorithm aims to prevent poor-quality content from reaching the top of search results<\/em>.<\/p>\n If Panda thinks your website provides low-quality content, it will be hard for your web pages to rank. Low-quality web content includes: “thin” pages with little or no added value, product pages with manufacturer-provided descriptions and no original text, and widespread duplicate content.<\/p>\n (The SEM Post’s guide to Google Panda<\/a> is a good resource for more details.)<\/p>\n How to Avoid a Panda Penalty:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Keep Panda fed and happy by providing original content that will satisfy searchers.<\/p>\n With a Panda issue, you can earn your way back up the search results by fattening up (rewriting\/improving) your thin content, eliminating duplicate pages (or blocking them<\/a> from search engines), and generally providing high-quality content<\/a> for your site visitors.<\/p>\n The Google Penguin algorithm combats webspam by detecting link spam.<\/p>\n When a site’s backlink profile<\/em> (i.e., the full list of links coming from external sites) includes too many unnatural-looking links, Google suspects that site of trying to manipulate search rankings \u2014 and Penguin’s feathers get understandably ruffled.<\/p>\n Google launched the first Penguin update in April 2012. Several agonizingly slow rollouts later, Google announced<\/a> a final update in September 2016. Penguin now operates in real-time as part of Google\u2019s core ranking algorithm.<\/p>\n Google says that the new Penguin algorithm no longer gives penalties. Rather than demoting a site with low-quality backlinks, Penguin now just devalues bad incoming links so they don\u2019t affect the site\u2019s rankings.<\/em><\/p>\n However, your link profile is still your responsibility. Having a large percentage of poor backlinks is a low-trust signal. Many sites that were hit with a Penguin penalty still need to take steps to recover.<\/p>\n How to Avoid a Penguin or Link-Related Penalty:<\/em><\/strong> If Google detects a site is buying or selling links, negotiating link exchanges, participating in link farms, or engaging in any kind of unnatural linking, it should expect to get penalized.<\/p>\n Also, if your organic search traffic drops suddenly, it could be due to a link-related penalty. The traffic chart below shows a tragic but typical example:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n To avoid Penguin issues, regularly monitor and clean up your backlinks<\/a>. (Stay tuned \u2014 you learn how to do this in the next lesson!)<\/p>\n Launched in January 2017<\/a>, the Intrusive Interstitial Penalty affects mobile search results only.<\/p>\n Google penalizes sites that show an intrusive ad, popup, or standalone interstitial to a mobile user immediately after clicking a mobile search result.<\/p>\n In general, Google demotes web pages that block searchers from easily seeing the content. Certain types of interstitials aren\u2019t penalized, such as login forms and legally necessary gates (for age verification or other).<\/p>\n This image shows three examples (provided by Google<\/a>) of intrusive interstitials that would cause a penalty:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How to Avoid an Interstitial Penalty:<\/em><\/strong> Give mobile searchers a good user experience. Avoid ads and popups that block too much of the screen right after a searcher arrives.<\/p>\n<\/a>What Is a Google Penalty<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Top 3 Guidelines for Avoiding Google Penalties<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>Google Penalties by Name<\/h2>\n
Google Panda Penalty<\/h3>\n
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\n<\/em><\/p>\nGoogle Penguin Penalty<\/h3>\n
Intrusive Interstitial Penalty<\/h3>\n