During your SEO campaign, the worst could happen. If you break any of Google’s guidelines, you could find that you face a penalty for doing so. That means that Google will decrease your site ranking and make it difficult for people to find your via their search engine. When that happens, it can have catastrophic consequences for your business. If your company has disappeared from Google, you need to do something about it straight away. Here is a quick guide to dealing with Google penalties.
Keep track of any changes you make to your site
When you are maintaining a site, it is important that you keep track of any changes you make to the site. You need to pinpoint any changes you made in the lead up to Google penalizing you. That way, you can try to determine the reason for your penalty. If you have made significant changes to your website recently, you might find they caused the penalty.
Test your site’s content
‘Google Panda‘ or ‘Quality Algorithm,’ as they now call it, checks whether the content on your website is high quality or not. Google rewards sites with great quality content and puts them high in their rankings. If you have moved down in the Google rankings, you might find that changing your content will help the situation. Sometimes companies favor quantity rather than quality in their content. They think that getting loads of content on their site will help their ranking. That is not the case. You should check that your content is informative, true and well-written so that it is high quality.
Watch out for repetition in your content
If you keep publishing the same articles day after day, Google will notice. It doesn’t matter whether you reword the articles slightly or change a few sentences, Google will penalize you. Repetition is a sin as far as the Google ranking system goes. Check the content of your site and see whether any articles or posts are similar.
Query your penalty with Google
If you think that the penalty is unfair or wrong, you can query it with Google. You should fill out a penalty recovery form online and state your case. Make sure that you are clear and precise when you give over your information. You will need dates and specifics so that Google can look into the problem as soon as possible. If Google supports your case, they can remove the penalty from your site within 72 hours.
You should build links over time, not all at once
When it comes to link building, you need to be careful. Google favors organic links, not promotional or spam links. If there are no links on your website one day and the next you have hundreds, this will send a warning to Google that you are not genuine. Make sure that you build organic, natural links into your text. Choose links that support your posts so that your linking system makes sense. Build up your link base over time. Rushing and putting loads of links on your site will lead to a penalty.
Check page rankings before you build new links
When you are working with other sites and companies, it is important that you check how legit they are. Before you decide to link to a site, make sure that you check their Google page rankings. If they have no ranking, they could make your site look less authentic. Ensure that you are thorough when you research companies to work with for linking purposes. The last thing you want is for Google to penalize you for working with a company that it doesn’t trust.