As a business owner, you’re likely always looking for ways to improve your ranking on Google. After all, appearing at the top of search results can mean more traffic and customers. However, you may trigger a Google penalty if you’re not careful. A penalty can dramatically drop your rankings, making it harder for people to find your site. The good news is that there are ways to recover from a penalty. This blog will help you understand the complete list of Google penalties and how to recover them to get your site back in good standing.
Misleading Concept Vs. Google Penalty
There are some myths and misleading concepts about the Google penalty. One such myth is mistaking an algorithm for a penalty. Just because your rankings dropped after an algorithm update does not mean Google penalized you. Panda and Penguin are two algorithms that can cause ranking drops, but they are not penalties. A penalty is only given if you violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Google Penalties and How to Fix them
Cloaking and Sneaky Redirects:
Cloaking and Sneaky Redirects are two of the most common Google Penalties. Cloaking is when a website shows Google bots different content than what is offered to users, while sneaky redirects occur when a user is redirected to another page without their knowledge. Google considers both of these practices as attempts to manipulate Google search results and can result in a website being penalized.
Recovery:
Recovery from these penalties can be difficult, but it is possible with the help of an experienced SEO specialist. In most cases, the first step is to identify and remove any cloaking or redirects on the website. Once done, you can resubmit the website to Google for reconsideration. While there is no guarantee that the websites will be recovered, following these steps will give the best chance for success.
Sneaky Mobile Redirects
Sneaky Mobile Redirects is a Google penalty that can be issued to sites that automatically redirect mobile visitors to a different page than expected. Sneaky Mobile Redirects can also be caused by malicious code placed on your site without your knowledge.
Recovery:
If you think Google has hit you with a sneaky mobile redirect penalty, check your website logs to see if there has been any unusual activity. You must remove the offending code from your site if you notice any suspicious redirects. You can then submit a reconsideration request to Google to remove your penalty.
Cloaked Images
Cloaked Images is a Google penalty that occurs when someone tries to show one thing to a Google bot and something else entirely to human users. This can be done by using different URLs for Googlebot and human users or using JavaScript to detect the user-agent and present additional content depending on who it is. Google considers cloaking a black hat SEO tactic because it attempts to trick Google into thinking that a page is more relevant and valuable than it is.
Recovery:
Google can detect and penalize cloaked images, so it is crucial to ensure that all your content is viewable to both Googlebot and human users. If you are unsure whether your content is being appropriately served, you can use Fetch as a Google tool in Search Console to test how Googlebot sees your pages. Cloaked images can be challenging to recover from, so it is best to avoid this penalty altogether by serving the same content to all users.
AMP Content Mismatch:
If you are using AMP pages on your site, make sure that the AMP version of the page contains the same content as the non-AMP version. AMP Content Mismatches occur when the AMP page has different content than the non-AMP page, such as images, videos, or text. This can result from incorrectly configured AMP pages or other versions of the same page being served to mobile and desktop users. If you have AMP Content Mismatches on your Site, Google will perform a message to users saying, “The AMP version of this page does not match the non-AMP version.”
Recovery:
AMP Content Mismatches can be fixed by updating the AMP page to match the content on the non-AMP page or redirecting mobile users to the AMP page.
Hidden Text and Keyword Stuffing:
Hidden text and keyword stuffing are two of the most common black hat SEO techniques. Hidden text is the text that is visible to Search Engines but not to users. Keyword Stuffing is the practice of cramming as many keywords into a piece of content as possible to manipulate Search Engine Rankings. Both approaches are against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and can result in penalties. Hidden text can range from a manual action taken by Google to complete removal from the search index. Keyword stuffing penalties are usually less severe but can still result in a drop in rankings.
Recovery:
To recover from a hidden text and keyword stuffing penalty, you must remove all traces of the offending content from your site and then submit a reconsideration request to Google. They will reinstate your site in the search index if they approve your request. However, it may take some time for your rankings to recover.
Pure Spam:
Deindexing a site for spamming Google’s search results. This is the most common penalty and usually results from a website using black hat SEO tactics.
Recovery:
To recover from this penalty, you must clean up your website and remove any spamming content or links. You can then submit a reconsideration request to Google.
Spammy Free host and Spammy Structured Markup Penalty:
Spammy Free host is a Google penalty that’s applied to sites that are hosted on IP addresses that are associated with spam. The Spammy Free host penalty is a manual action, meaning that a Google employee applies. You will see a message on your Google Search Console if you receive this penalty.
Recovery:
You can recover from the Spammy Free host penalty by moving your site to a new host. Be sure to change your DNS settings and update your Google Search Console account so that Google can crawl your new site.
Another standard Google penalty is the Spammy Structured Markup Penalty. This penalty is applied to sites that use structured markup in a way considered spammy. For example, if you use structured markup to mark up content that’s not visible to users, you may receive this penalty.
Recovery:
You can recover from this penalty by removing the entire structured markup from your site. Once you’ve removed the structured markup, you can submit your site for re-evaluation using the URL submission tool in Google Search Console.
Thin Content With Little or No Added Value:
Thin content is a standard penalty that can be difficult to recover from. Google defines narrow content as having little or no added value, often appearing in the form of short, unhelpful articles or duplicated content.
Recovery:
If you suspect Google has penalized your site for thin content, the first step is to conduct an audit of your site’s content. Once you have identified the Thin Content pages on your site, you can begin working or adding more valuable content. This may involve fleshing out existing articles or writing new pieces from scratch.
Unnatural links to your site:
Unnatural links to your site can result in a Google penalty. Google typically penalizes a website with too many connections from low-quality sites or if the links come from the same small group of websites.
Recovery:
If you believe Google penalizes your site for unnatural links, you can try to remove the offending links by contacting the site owners and asking them to remove the link. You can also use Google’s disavow tool to tell Google not to consider certain links when crawling on your site. Finally, ensure that your site only has links from high-quality websites. By following these steps, you can help to recover from the Google penalty.
Unnatural Links from your Site:
Unnatural Links from your Site are links explicitly placed to improve your site’s ranking. You can do this through various methods, such as buying links, selling links, or specifying the anchor text of a link. If Google detects unnatural links coming from your site, they may take manual action against your site. Google will entirely remove your site from Google’s search results.
Recovery:
If you believe Google has penalized your site for unnatural links, you can submit a reconsideration request to Google. Detailedly explain your actions to remove the unnatural links and improve your site’s linking strategy. In most cases, Google will review your request and reinstate your site if it satisfies them with your changes.
User-Generated Spam:
The user-generated spam happens when someone other than the site owner creates spammy content on your website. This could be as comments, forum posts, or guest blog articles. Google will penalize your site if it detects an outrageous amount of user-generated spam.
Recovery:
To recover from this penalty, you must remove all spammy content from your site. You can do this manually or by using a plugin like Akismet.
Recovery:
If you believe Google has penalized your site for unnatural links, you can submit a reconsideration request to Google. Detailedly explain your actions to remove the unnatural links and improve your site’s linking strategy. In most cases, Google will review your request and reinstate your site if it satisfies them with your changes.
User-Generated Spam:
The user-generated spam happens when someone other than the site owner creates spammy content on your website. This could be as comments, forum posts, or guest blog articles. Google will penalize your site if it detects an outrageous amount of user-generated spam.
Recovery:
To recover from this penalty, you must remove all spammy content from your site. You can do this manually or by using a plugin like Akismet.
Recovery:
If you believe Google has penalized your site for unnatural links, you can submit a reconsideration request to Google. Detailedly explain your actions to remove the unnatural links and improve your site’s linking strategy. In most cases, Google will review your request and reinstate your site if it satisfies them with your changes.
User-Generated Spam:
The user-generated spam happens when someone other than the site owner creates spammy content on your website. This could be as comments, forum posts, or guest blog articles. Google will penalize your site if it detects an outrageous amount of user-generated spam.
Recovery:
To recover from this penalty, you must remove all spammy content from your site. You can do this manually or by using a plugin like Akismet.