When you run a business, there are lots of different penalties you might be liable for. Ever got a letter from the government telling you to pay your taxes or incur its mighty wrath? We feel you.
There’s another penalty that you might not be aware of…. the dreaded Google penalty. If you’ve found your web traffic has nosedived and you’re not entirely sure why, you might have got in trouble with the world’s largest search engine!
The good news?
Google penalty recovery is possible. You just need to know what you did to get the penalty and put it right.
There are two types of Google penalty; manual and algorithmic. If you’re wondering how to check for each type of Google penalty and put the wheels in motion to remove it, don your deerstalker hat and let’s go sleuthing…
What is a manual Google penalty?
As you can appreciate, it’s in Google’s best interest to ensure people only get the most accurate and high-quality websites when searching for a keyword or phrase.
With this in mind, Google has created a very hefty document called Google Search Essentials, formerly known as Google Webmaster Guidelines. This guide specifies what websites and webpages need to do to appear in the search results.
Think of it like a bouncer on the door of a club. If you’re not dressed correctly, you’re not coming in!
If a webpage goes against Google’s guidelines and a member of Google’s webspam team clocks it, it receives what is known as a manual action. As a result of this penalty, the page is demoted in the search engine rankings or, in more extreme circumstances, blocked entirely.
A web page can get a penalty for anything that Google thinks reduces the integrity of the content or manipulates the search results. This can be anything from backlinks off dodgy websites to redirecting visitors to completely irrelevant pages.
What is an algorithmic Google penalty?
The Google algorithm is a system that considers many factors and signals in order to provide the best results when someone enters a keyword or phrase into Google.
The bad news? The Google algorithm changes more often than an English football manager moves between teams. Google rolled out ten search ranking updates in 2022 alone!
An algorithmic Google penalty occurs when a website falls foul of changes to the updated algorithm and receives an automatic penalty as a result. For example, Google launched the ‘helpful content’ update in the summer of 2022, meaning that content created for search engines rather than people was demoted in the rankings. If Google deemed your website information as non-helpful content, it would receive a penalty.
In summary – manual penalties are given by a human while algorithmic penalties are given automatically.
This leads us nicely onto how to check for a Google penalty and how to recover from one…
How do I check for a Google penalty and how do I know if I have one?
Google doesn’t email you to let you know that you have a penalty. This means the first sign that something is wrong is when your search engine traffic takes a dive, or you find you’re getting fewer conversions than usual. It sucks, we know.
So, how do you check for a Google penalty if you get no direct notification? Excellent question!
How to check for a manual Google penalty
There is an excellent Google penalty checker out there by the name of Google Search Console.
This is a free service that you can link to your website. Not only can you check for manual actions, but you can also see what keywords people are searching for to find your site, as well as identify broken pages.
If you already have Google Analytics or Tag Manager set up on your site, it’s easy to get started!
Otherwise, it’s a case of adding a snippet of code to your HTML so Google Search Console can verify that you own the website in question. Just click on + Add property, and Google will talk you through what to do.
When you’re set up on Google Search Manager, here’s how to check for a Google penalty. Go to the menu on the left-hand side of the page and select Manual Actions.
If you have any penalties, Google will list the issue as well as the pages that are affected. Some issues may impact specific pages on your website, while others affect the entire site.
If you don’t have any penalties, you’ll see a green tick and the words No issues detected. Breathe easy; you’re safe for now at least!
How to check for an algorithmic Google penalty
Here’s the kicker; Google Search Console only tells you if you have a manual penalty, not if you have an algorithmic penalty.
If you think you have an algorithmic Google penalty, the best thing to do is to check your website traffic, either through Google Analytics or your analytics software of choice.
Try and pin down the date when your traffic started to dip, and look at the Google search ranking updates. This will give you insight into what changes took place in Google, and what you might have potentially done to cause a penalty.
How do I remove a Google penalty? Three simple steps…
So you’ve checked your website for a Google penalty, and the results aren’t good. What next?
The first thing to do – don’t panic. It’s important to remember that your website or webpage is still active. Google may be all-powerful, but even it can’t take your site down.
It might make you feel better knowing that lots of websites have received penalties in the past. The BBC, Interflora and even WordPress have been hit with the Google rulebook, and they’re doing all right!
Step 1:
The first thing to do is to understand why you got the penalty in the first place. Google Search Console is surprisingly good at explaining what the different manual actions mean.
Alternatively, you might already know what got you in trouble.
Step 2:
When you understand the problem, it’s time to put things right. Before you can go back to Google and plead your case, you need to remove the issue that caused the penalty.
This might be a five-minute job or may take a lot longer. Issues like keyword stuffing and duplicate content are pretty easy to resolve; just find the relevant content and remove or revise it.
Other issues, like spammy backlinks, can take more time. This is because you need to ask the offending websites to remove the links, or alternatively, wait for Google to disavow them. This means asking Google to ignore specific links to your site.
Step 3:
This step depends on whether you got a manual or algorithmic penalty.
For a manual penalty, once you’re confident that the issue is resolved, you can go back to Google Search Console. Return to the Manual Actions section and request a review. Google will look at your pages, and if it’s happy that you’ve fixed the issue, will remove the penalty.
If you received an algorithmic penalty, all you can do is wait. Keep an eye on your website traffic and see when it perks up once more.
Job done. (Just make sure it doesn’t happen again!)
How long does Google manual penalty removal take?
Google penalty removal isn’t a quick process.
As your pages need to be manually audited by a human, it can take anything from ten days to a month to get a result. As a rule of thumb, the more serious the issue, the longer it takes.
There is also the possibility that your request is rejected if Google doesn’t think you’ve done enough to solve the problem. It can often take two or three attempts before you see success.
How can I avoid a Google penalty?
The best way to avoid a Google penalty is to be squeaky clean when it comes to your SEO. Boring we know, but it means you’re less likely to breach the Google Search Essentials.
This means creating high-quality original content and avoiding dodgy practices like buying links and stuffing your pages with keywords. If you’re working with an agency that specialises in these practices, we’d recommend giving them the old heave-ho pretty sharpish.
We only use white hat SEO at Bubblegum Search, meaning you can sleep easy at night knowing your website will still be on Google in the morning!
Google penalty removal doesn’t have to be a challenge
We hope you’ve found this guide all about how to check for a Google penalty useful. You should now know the difference between a manual and algorithmic penalty, be able to check your website for a Google penalty, and how to recover.
Got a Google penalty and not sure how to get rid of it? We’ve got you. Our team of SEO specialists have experience in finding and removing Google penalties, meaning you can get on with running your business.
Let us resolve your Google penalty check issues. Alternatively, let our team carry out a free SEO audit so you can see how to boost your search engine ranking safely and without risk.