A website penalty is a type of punishment imposed by search engines on websites that do not comply with their guidelines. These penalties can result in the website losing its rankings, visibility, and traffic. Website penalties usually occur when search engines detect spammy or black-hat SEO practices that violate their rules.
In this post, we will answer the six most popular questions about website penalties.
A Google penalty can be caused by various factors such as keyword stuffing, invisible text, cloaking, link buying or selling, duplicate content, and more. Most of these practices are deemed illegal by Google's guidelines and can lead to a drop in a website's ranking.
The Panda update is an algorithmic penalty introduced by Google to combat low-quality content farms and websites that produce shallow and irrelevant content. This update has affected millions of websites globally, resulting in a significant decrease in traffic.
An algorithmic penalty is a penalty imposed by search engines automatically when their algorithms detect your website using spammy or manipulative SEO techniques to rank higher. Unlike manual penalties, algorithmic penalties are harder to identify as they're not accompanied by any warnings from the search engines.
A manual penalty occurs when a human reviewer from the search engine discovers that your site has violated their guidelines through spamming or other black hat SEO practices. Google will provide you with a notification detailing the violations that led to your manual penalty.
To request reconsideration after receiving a manual penalty you must first review your site for any violations and take corrective measures. You must then submit your site for reconsideration on Google Search Console, detailing the changes made.
To avoid a penalty, you must adhere to the search engine's guidelines and steer clear of black hat SEO practices such as cloaking, keyword stuffing, link buying or selling, and other manipulative techniques.
