Google Penalty Check: What You Need to Know

SEO is a critical part of digital marketing, as it helps your website rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). However, if Google finds that your SEO Auckland tactics are not in compliance with their guidelines, they can penalize your website. In this blog post, we’ll explain what a Google penalty is, how to check if you are penalized by Google, and how to avoid getting penalized.

What is a Google Penalty? 

A Google penalty is when your website loses ranking due to violating one or more of the search engine’s guidelines. This can happen for various reasons, including keyword stuffing, buying links or participating in link exchanges, duplicate content, and more. 

It’s important to note that while you may be penalized by one search engine like Google or Bing, that doesn’t necessarily mean you will be penalized by the other. Each search engine has its own set of rules and algorithms that determine whether or not a website should be penalized.

How to Check if You are Penalized by Google? 

If you suspect that your website has been penalized by Google for SEO activity, there are several ways to check. 

The first thing you should do is review the Search Console messages from Google related to any penalties issued against your website. 

If there are no messages from Search Console about penalties, then you should try searching for keywords related to your business on both desktop and mobile devices using different browsers and locations. 

If your rankings have dropped significantly across all searches it could be an indication of a penalty. 

Lastly, make sure you monitor any changes made to Google’s algorithmic updates as these could also affect your rankings negatively if they don’t align with the new guidelines set forth by the search engine giant.  

What Happens If Your Website is Penalized by Google?  

If your website has indeed been penalized by Google for SEO activity then it will result in decreased ranking visibility on SERPs which means fewer people will find your site through organic searches. 

This could lead to decreased traffic and sales depending on how severe the penalty was given and how quickly it can be fixed or removed. 

Additionally, if a manual action was taken against your site then it could also result in being de-indexed from the SERP completely which would make it virtually impossible for people to find unless they had the exact URL typed into their browser bar directly from another source such as social media promotion or advertising campaigns outside of traditional SEO efforts.                                  

Google Penalties’ Duration

Google penalty recovery is case-specific and varies depending on the page. When a Google employee manually examines a website, such as when they suspect ranking manipulation due to backlink purchases, a manual penalty may be issued. The length of time the website will be punished will be decided by the extent and severity of the offence. 

For a minor violation of the Google Webmaster Guidelines, this could be as little as 10 days, or longer for a more severe offence. After the allotted time period, the manual penalty will end on its own. Your website could have been impacted by both an algorithm update and a manual penalty. 

In this case, multiply the time it will take you to earn rankings using white hat techniques by the time it is expected to take to approve your reconsideration request.                                                                             

How To Avoid Getting Penalized By google?  

The easiest way to avoid getting penalized by google is simply following their guidelines closely when optimizing content for SEO Auckland purposes; however, sometimes mistakes can still happen even if best practices have been followed so here are some additional tips for avoiding penalties: 

• Keep track of algorithm updates – As mentioned above make sure you keep up with any changes made to google’s algorithm as this can impact rankings negatively if not adhered too properly; 
• Monitor backlinks – Make sure any backlinks pointing towards your site are from reputable sources; 
• Monitor keyword usage – Don’t go overboard with keywords as this can lead to keyword stuffing which will result in penalties; 
• Monitor content creation – Make sure all content created follows google’s content quality standards; 
• Monitor page load times – Ensure pages load quickly as slow loading times can hurt user experience resulting in lower rankings overall.

Types Of Penalties 

One of the first stages in determining whether or not you have a Google penalty is to understand what one is. As a result, Many SEO services experts recommend that you take the time to learn about each sort of penalty that Google may impose on you.

Algorithmic Penalties

When Google’s algorithm is updated, these types of penalties are automatically applied to websites that report activities that violate Google’s rules. If Google imposes a penalty based on your algorithm, review the most recent important updates.

Penalty for Manual Review

Manual review penalties can occur at any moment and for a variety of reasons. However, due to the large number of websites on the Internet and the small number of Google workers on the webspam team, the majority of manual review penalties begin with an algorithmic penalty. In the case of a manual review penalty, you will receive an email from Google’s webmaster tools.

Penalty Applied to the Entire Site

This punishment indicates that Google considers your website to be spam in their search results. As a result of the penalty, your search rankings have dropped drastically, or they have been capped at a deep page in the results, making you practically inaccessible. As a consequence of this type of penalty, a site may be de-indexed or even blacklisted at times.

Manual Penalty in Part

A partial manual penalty indicates that the manual reviewer thinks your website is doing well overall, but that some or all of your pages could be improved. It is usually imposed on websites with a few bad links or on pages where the content quality does not satisfy Google’s standards. Only site owners who have been constantly tracking their site’s data can determine the severity of a partial manual penalty. A partial manual penalty does not always have an impact on a website’s search results.

Things To Check To Get Out Of Penalty 

Once you’ve identified the reason why you were given a penalty it’s time to take steps towards fixing it; here are some things worth checking before submitting an appeal with google: 

Are all backlinks coming from reputable sources? 

Is keyword usage appropriate (not overused)? 

Is all content original/unique/high-quality? 

Are page load times fast enough? 

Are there any broken links or 404 errors on pages? 

Is html structured correctly accordingto w3c standards? 

Do all images have relevant alt tags & titles assigned?

Conclusion:

While getting hit with a penalty from google may seem daunting at first there are steps that can be taken towards mitigating potential damage done and ensuring better performance going forward–it just takes some time & effort! With proper planning & execution most websites can bounce back relatively quickly after receiving a penalty but it’s important never forget why one was given in the first place so similar mistakes aren’t repeated going forward! No matter what type of business you run having good SEO Auckland practices in place will help ensure better visibility online & increased exposure so always remember–prevention is key!