Google Penalty

Google Penalty = Penalty by algorithm update or manual action. It can affect keywords, URLs, directories, or the entire domain – up to deindexation. Common causes: spam, unnatural links, Black Hat, weak content.

Negative influences on a page's ranking in Google's results pages are referred to as a penalty. The decrease in visibility in the search results usually accompanies an adjustment to the search engine's algorithm. Consequently, an algorithm update brings changes to the criteria that are significant for search engine optimization. In the past, updates such as the Penguin Update, Panda Update, or Helpful Content Update have led to websites being penalized for no longer meeting new standards regarding content, links, and other criteria.

Furthermore, a manual Google Penalty can also be initiated as a measure. Often, violations of the Google Webmaster Guidelines are discovered by an employee, who then lowers the ranking of the websites. A manual penalty can occur when a site is in a bad neighborhood, uses Black Hat SEO methods, or commits copyright infringements.

Not infrequently, a penalty means that significant ranking drops have to be noted. At this point, it is important to distinguish regular ranking fluctuations from a Google penalty: A penalty by Google is clearly noticeable in the ranking positions.

What forms and impacts of penalties are there for a website?

In addition to algorithm-based and manually implemented Google penalties, the impact of the penalty on a website is differentiated. This is referred to as the penalty level, as the penalizing measure can be applied to pages on a keyword level, URL or directory level, hostname level, or site-wide across the domain. The most severe penalty is delisting, which goes far beyond merely decreasing the visibility index. Delisting means de-indexing — the removal of the entire domain, including subpages, from the Google index. This usually indicates a severe violation of the webmaster guidelines.

In the case of a keyword penalty, a website's ranking deteriorates for a specific keyword. Pages with the keyword lose significant positions due to such a penalty (usually up to 10, 20, or more positions). However, these pages can still rank well for other keywords if they have been optimized for multiple keywords or keyword combinations. Therefore, the web visibility index does not necessarily have to be generally affected in this case. Oftentimes, unauthorized link generation techniques lead to a site being penalized by Google. In the case of a URL penalty, the entire subpage loses its ranking positions, regardless of whether it ranks for one or multiple keywords. Black Hat SEO methods such as cloaking and doorway pages or spreading malware can be reasons for the penalty here. It can also be a cause if the website has associated itself with a bad neighborhood of pages that use such practices. Links from such sources are definitely harmful. On a directory level, a specific area is penalized, which stands out due to poor content or duplicate content, for example. On a domain level, the entire web domain or a subdomain is affected by the Google penalty measure.

Common reasons why sites are affected by a Google Penalty:

Unnatural incoming or outgoing backlinks
Keyword stuffing, link spam, and other SEO over-optimizations
Low-quality content
Unlabeled link purchase
Spam pages
Black Hat SEO and links from sites that use Black Hat SEO

Is the operator of a website informed about the Google penalty?

Website operators are informed about a penalty in the Google Search Console. However, this does not mean that there is complete information on exactly what measures need to be taken for the rankings to recover. Often, a few example links are provided that give clues to the main issues of a website. However, this link listing is never complete.

How can one lift a Google penalty for the site?

If the Google Penalty is a result of algorithm changes, the webmaster has no choice but to adapt their website to the update. In other words, the search engine optimization must be improved so that the site meets the search engine's standards. Then the ranking in the SERPs can recover, and the effect of the penalty disappears on its own. This is also why SEO is a constant process, and optimizations must be regularly reviewed to stay up to date.

However, if a manual penalty was imposed by an employee, a reconsideration request must be submitted. In this case, the website will be manually checked for violations. If everything is fixed, the ranking will rise again. Otherwise, the page must be improved again by using the Google Disavow Tool to disavow the low-quality and bad backlinks. To avoid such a situation, care should be taken from the outset in link building regarding where the links come from and to ensure that the website does not fall into a bad neighborhood.