There are several ways of ranking your website on Google, some are good, some are bad, and some are forbidden. When you go into that forbidden zone, and Google catches you, it is when the whole problem starts.
There are a specific set of rules apply when you are SEOing a website or a business per se; Google wants us to become customer-friendly, rather than being search engine friendly, which is the reason behind penalties.
If you are too using black hat SEO techniques like cloaking, doorway pages, hidden text, keyword stuffing you’ll get a penalty.
Other examples of the black hat are link schemes, sneaky redirects, reporting competitor, guest post networks, article spinning and link manipulation.
When you cheat Google, and it finds out, it lowers your ranking, which means less engagement and lesser revenue.
Is it a Penalty or an Algorithm Hit?
Google changes its algorithm twice a day, over 500 times a year. But, not all of them are affecting the way we SEO, no Sir! Only significant changes like Panda or Penguin call for substantial change.
So, when your content is no longer making any sense to the new algorithm, it will go down the drain for sure.
An algorithm can bite you in the back even if you are not doing anything “wrong”.
On the other hand, when you are cheating the search engine and your traffic, you are prone to Google Penalty.
But How To Recover From A Google Penalty?
It is pretty simple. First, you need to identify why the heck you were penalized?
Not all the penalties are handed out by the Spider; some are the outcome of manual work; yes, humans are working behind it too.
So, go to your Google Webmaster Tools and check if Google has sent you any notifications.
If there is a notification, then you are facing a Google Penalty, not Algorithm Penalty.
This notification will also tell you for what violation your ranking is taking a hit.
There is only one way of controlling the damage; you will have to the right the wrongs.
If the penalty is for evil or unrelated links, then first you have to get rid of those links.
The reason on the other hand it is, cloaking, then you must end the practice on your page and let the people know what the real deal is.
All clear, I guess, now, when you have ticked all the boxes, now send a reconsideration request to Google.
Some of The Biggest Penalties
When it comes to penalties, Google is a bit ruthless; it does not spare anyone. Now, did you know Google actually penalized Chrome itself?
Yes, in the year 2012, Google Webspam’s team punished and penalized the company’s own product, Chrome.
The reason given was Chrome’s homepage manipulated PageRank with paid (purchases) blog posts.
Chrome was kicked out of 1st page SERP and saw a significant drop of 9 to 7 ranks. Relevant keywords like Browser also felt the hit.
On another such incident, on 6th February 2006, Google penned down BMW for using doorway pages.
Google dropped BMWs ranking to zero. Yes a perfect oval, it was quite a hit though.
Conclusion
Google is a mean player when it comes to penalties, and we have seen how it gives more than 100% in it.
For crying out loud, it has punished its Browser. So who are you and me in this game?
Not even the best digital marketing company stands a chance in this game of thrones.
Be fair or be ready for a penalty; it is the only mantra to survive here.
Leave a Reply