Google Penalty: how to cope?

Your site has seen its statistics crumble overnight? Maybe you have suffered a penalty from one of Google's algorithms. It is therefore necessary to identify the problem upstream, to be able to settle it quickly and find your place in the results page.

Identify the type of penalty

In the first place, it is necessary to find the origin of this criminality . Know that there are 3 big mistakes that can lead Google to make you go down in the results:

• Doubtful or low quality incoming links
• Over-optimized content
• Low quality content, even duplicated

You must go to your Google Webmaster Tool account and check if you do not have a message that notifies you of the penalty. In the latter, Google will explain the facts that are problematic and may even give you a solution to lift the penalty.

In case of problems with incoming links

Google has developed an algorithm named Penguin which is responsible for checking links on sites and penalize those who have massive backlinks, from unreliable directories, sites with different themes or link shopping platforms. This algorithm aims to favor sites that benefit from natural back links, a sign of quality.

If you have, at a time when it still worked, bought many links or submitted your site to dozens, even hundreds of directories, you may have been sanctioned by Google. If you're not for nothing, you may be a victim of Negative SEO, even if this technique is rarely used.

In any case, it is your responsibility to clean these low quality links to get your website up and running again. To do this, you need to go to the Google Webmaster Tool in the "Search Traffic" section and then "Link to your site". You will have a brief overview of domain names that include links to yours. Click on "More" and then on "Download Table".

You will have to look at all the lines of this table and select the sites that seem to you doubtful. All links from directories or sites unrelated to your activity must be selected.

When you have finished this step, go to this page to disavow the links. You can upload your low quality backlinks and Google will do the rest. You will not find your place instantly; you have to wait for Google to regain confidence again. However, this reclassification can be accelerated if you respect all other good practices, namely: regularly publish new quality content and diversify your traffic by posting your articles on social networks.

In case of problem with the content

This part is the Google Panda algorithm. There may be different concerns with your texts, whether in static pages or on your blog. You can have a message in Google Webmaster Tool ... or not! Therefore, it's up to you to identify the problem with your content. To help you, here are the main reasons why Panda penalizes sites and how to fix them:

You have placed too many keywords in your content and tags

If it is important to place a main keyword in your title and a subtitle, you must also use synonyms throughout the text. Clean up your articles and titles, by decreasing the use of your keyword, for the benefit of its lexical field.

You have links and keywords hidden in your texts

You should not hide keywords from your readers (by writing them in white, while you have a white background, for example). This is viewed with a very bad eye by Google, and considered is like the black hat (as opposed to the white hat, the "good" SEO).

Your content is too short: less than 200 words on each page

If your content is unique and they are not over optimized, simply add words to develop your ideas and benefits. The more you tell your customers, the more they will be encouraged to contact you.

You have over-optimized your footer

Your footer should not be riddled with links and keywords. It is in place to facilitate the browsing of Internet users and to allow you to give additional information easily accessible. Remove unnecessary links and simplify this part as much as possible to lift the penalty.