Have you recently been struck by a manual penalty or a Google animal? If so, you’re not alone. Every few months, google releases an algorithm update and thus can cause certain websites to be hit with a penalty. When a person is said to experience either type of penalty by Google, they will notice a significant drop in rankings and/or traffic incoming to their website. No matter what the penalty arises from, webmasters have the ability to fix the issues at hand and resolve their websites of any google penalties. Thankfully, we’ve compiled a detailed guide to help you diagnose and fix the issues at hand.
Understanding Google Penalties
As briefly touched on above, google typically has 2 different types of categories when it comes to penalties. Both of them are something to be aware of and understand in their entireties.
Manual Penalty
If you check your Google Search Console (also known as Google Webmaster) and find a notification that your website has been struck with a manual penalty, it simply means that a member of the Google Spam team manually reviewed your website or links pointing to it and found your website is not “up to par” with their requirements. Typically, when a website owner experiences a manual penalty, they’ll receive a personalized message explaining why the manual action was taken against your site.
Manual penalties are the easiest to combat. Due to the fact that a Google employee sent you a personal message explaining the issue, you can then take the necessary steps to fixing the problem at hand.
Google Penguin Penalty
Throughout the year, google will make algorithm changes which is done in an attempt to make the Google search engine more accurate, helpful, and enjoyable. However, as Google makes changes to their algorithm, it can cause websites to be hit with penalties.
Typically, when a user is hit with a Penguin penalty, the website typically contains one or more issues such as:
- Over-Optimized Anchor Text
- Too Many Spammy Links Pointing To Their Website
- Thin Content On The Site
- Duplicate Content Found On The Website
When receiving a Google Penguin penalty, the webmaster will be notified within Google Search Console. If a user suspects that they’ve been hit with a penalty, they should check their Google Search Console to see if their website has been penalized and the reasons behind Google’s actions.
How to Remove the Penalty from Your Site
In order to effectively remove your google penalty, it’s highly recommended that you follow the below-mentioned steps.
Confirm that you’ve been hit with a Penalty
Firstly, double check that you’ve actually been hit with a penalty. If you’re using a service or software to manage your rankings, double check that your rankings haven’t plummeted. Next, log into Google Search Console and check to see if you have any messages from Google. If you find that your site has been penalized, Google will explain to you why the penalty was given in the first place.
Fix the problems mentioned within Google Search Console
Each penalty situation is unique & must be handled independently of other cases. Take a close look at why google deemed your website wasn’t at good health, and do the necessary changes. For example, if you found that your website was hit due to duplicate content, you should change the content on your site and stop using other people’s content. If you found that your website was hit with a penalty due to spammy links, it’s highly encouraged that you take a close look at the links pointing to your website & remove the low-quality ones.
Submit your website for reconsideration
Once you’ve made the necessary changes, submit your website for a reconsideration request. Within a few short weeks, a Google employee will manually check to confirm that you’ve made the necessary changes.
