Want to get Rid of Google Penalties? Start Your Day with these SEO Activities
On-page and off-page SEO optimization techniques that breach Google’s Webmaster guidelines can result in a ranking penalty (either a manual penalty or an algorithmic penalty) against your website.
If you don’t take these guidelines seriously, the penalty that your website receives as a result can be difficult to recover from.
If your website traffic suddenly drops and you see a corresponding decline in rankings, there is a good possibility that you are on the receiving end of a Google penalty. Google reported in 2014 that over 400,000 manual actions are taken against websites every month by their web spam team (1), and that’s really only a fraction of the total number. Many other websites are penalized when Google rolls out new algorithmic updates to Penguin or Panda.
Do you want to optimize your website, drive more traffic and deliver higher conversions? This is a checklist that we follow, and can get your site to rank consistently on top of search engines. Download this ultimateSEO Checklistwhich includes On-Page SEO as well as Off-Page SEO techniques that will help you rank well on the search engines.
A sudden, unexplained drop in rankings can be disastrous for retailers, as it can prevent visitors from finding and purchasing your products, but you can recover from a Google penalty.
In this article we’re going to walk through the details regarding google penalty and ways to avoid it.
What is a Google Penalty?
A Google penalty is a punishment handed out by Google. A Google penalty may result from an algorithm update initiated by Google. An example was the Mobilegeddon update that penalized sites for not being mobile-friendly.
Penalties may also result from a manual review of the web page. If businesses have utilized black hat SEO techniques, Google can penalize them in such scenario. The website must be in accordance with Google’s webmaster guidelines. That is the best way to avoid a penalty. Google penalties for black hat SEO are the most common ones.
Penalties can vary in severity. The most common result is that your search ranking decreases. In extreme cases, you may end up being blocked from Google. One can make use of Google penalties checker blog for more details on how to check the penalties.
What are some common Google Penalties?
Some penalties can affect every page on a site. Others are specific to keywords pages. Some of the most common reasons for the penalties is exhaustive, though a list of Google penalties includes:
Manipulative or unscrupulous link-building activity
There are many people who sell you links from a private blog network (PBN) that they’ve established. If you’re new to the concept of PBN, it’s a series of blogs set up that looks like it provides meaningful content, but in reality serves as backlinks to people who pay the owner of the network.
It’s dangerous because Google is aware that people are engaged in this unscrupulous activity and Google can easily track the IP addresses of servers on these PBNs and delisting them. If you buy backlinks, you could end up getting google penalties.
2. Don’t Stuff Keywords
Stuffing keywords on the page was the easiest way to move up the rankings in earlier days. Now there are google penalties for black hat SEO and keywords stuffing is included in those. In short, it is not wise to practice keyword stuffing as Google will notice your site.
This will lead to degradation in rankings and it also dissolves the quality content you had uploaded in the first place.
3. Check Backlinks and Disavow Bad Ones
One way to ensure that your site doesn’t get google penalties is to regularly check your backlinks to make sure that you’re not receiving bad link content from sites that are known for spam. There are some competitors who might send backlinks using black hat SEO techniques to your site.
Their sole intention is to get your website delisted from the search engine results pages (SERPs) so that they have one less competitor challenging them for a high rank.
Luckily, you can use a tool like Google Search Console and Majestic to check backlinks. If you find that you have spammy links in your profile, you should disavow them. Google offers a disavow tool to webmasters anxious to play nice with the search engine giant.
4. Don’t Use Sneaky Mobile Redirects
Sometimes, webmasters turn to the Dark Side for mobile users only. In that case, when someone lands on their website from a mobile device, they redirect the visitor to another site that’s often completely unrelated to the content on the original site. However, desktop users who click the exact same link aren’t redirected.
Google is poised to penalize sites that use sneaky mobile redirects. It’s best to just play it straight with your mobile search traffic.
5. Don’t Use Spun Articles as Content
Article spinning is the easiest way to rewrite the duplicate content. People use content spinner so that the article gets rewritten quickly. Google can catch the use of such article spinners as at end of the day they are plagiarized ones. Google penalties can be attracted for such an act.
Also, sometimes the spun content looks laughable to a human reader. It’s like someone just swallowed a thesaurus and started typing.
6. Don’t Sell Links
So you’ve done a great job ranking your site and, all of a sudden, you get emails from people willing to pay you for links. It seems like a great opportunity.
The reality is far from great. You’ve worked hard to rank your site on Google. Having links on your website will be viewed by Google as a link farm and will lead to google penalties.
7. Don’t Try Cloaking
Cloaking refers to practice of presenting your content in one way to the search engines while showing completely different content to real, human visitors.
That’s accomplished by using code that reads the IP address and/or User-Agent HTTP header of the user and rendering content accordingly. In short it relates to spam SEO and can attract google penalties.
8. Don’t Offer Pirated Content
It’s very obvious that, pirated content on your site can lead to google penalties.
9. Ensure That Your Site Is Responsive (or at least mobile ready)
A responsive site (or generally mobile ready site) will offer a user-friendly display for people on any device. If you don’t have a responsive site, you’re limiting your reach because mobile visitors might have trouble using it.
10. Don’t Use Hidden Text
If you’re knowledgeable in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), then you know how to present text in any color. You can even make text disappear by presenting it in the same color as the background. Now this is the old method to get higher ranking in results page. Google algorithm is enough advanced to catch hold of such offender and can easily attract google penalties.
What to do after a Google Penalty?
Google penalty removal isn’t always easy. It’s important to know that there are two kinds of penalties: manual and algorithmic.
Manual penalties are handed down by a Google employee and are often given when your website is found to be doing something against Google’s Terms of Service. Such manual penalties include a virus infection, cloaking, redirects, or buying links. When you receive a manual penalty, you will need to make an appeal to Google to reindex your website—that is, put it back into the search engine results—before anyone will be able to find you again.
On the other hand, an algorithmic penalty happens automatically, without manual intervention from Google. These are often the result of an algorithm change designed to rank websites of value higher than those with weaker content or relevance. Algorithmic penalties, like Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird, may impact websites that have thin or duplicate content, keyword-stuffed copy, slow loading times, or a lack of incoming links. With this kind of penalty, you will still be ranking in search, but probably much lower.
Conclusion
The key to avoiding any type of Google penalties is to understand the emphasis Google puts on user experience in totality. While devising your SEO strategy, make sure you keep your end user in mind.
Create content for people, not Google. Build natural backlinks and make every effort to provide a smooth user experience to your visitors.
Watch: Best SEO Activities to Recover from Google Penalties
For Curious Minds
A sudden, sharp decline in organic traffic and keyword rankings is a strong indicator of a Google penalty. You must differentiate between a manual action, which is a direct punishment from the web spam team, and an algorithmic penalty triggered by updates like Panda (content quality) or Penguin (link quality), as the recovery paths are entirely different.
To diagnose the issue, you should follow a structured approach:
Check Google Search Console: Look for notifications under the “Manual Actions” report. This is the clearest confirmation of a penalty imposed by a human reviewer.
Analyze Algorithm Update Timelines: Cross-reference your traffic drop date with known dates of major Google algorithm updates. A correlation suggests an algorithmic demotion.
Review On-Page and Off-Page Signals: A manual action often targets specific violations like paid links, while an algorithmic hit might be broader, relating to thin content or a poor user experience.
Correctly identifying the source is the first step toward a targeted recovery strategy. Uncovering the specifics will help you understand whether you need to disavow links, overhaul content, or submit a reconsideration request.
A manipulative link scheme is any method used to artificially inflate the number or quality of links pointing to your website with the intent to manipulate search rankings. Understanding this is critical because Google views these as a direct violation of its guidelines, often resulting in severe manual penalties that can erase your site's visibility and require extensive cleanup.
These schemes go far beyond just buying links and can include:
Private Blog Networks (PBNs): Using a network of websites created solely to link back to a primary site.
Excessive Link Exchanges: Engaging in large-scale “link to me and I will link to you” arrangements.
Automated Link Generation: Using software or services to automatically create links on forums, comments, or low-quality directories.
Low-Quality Guest Posting: Publishing articles on irrelevant or poor-quality sites purely for the backlink, often with over-optimized anchor text.
Focusing on earning high-quality, relevant links naturally is the only sustainable strategy. A proactive approach to link acquisition, grounded in these guidelines, is your best defense against devastating penalties.
While both are harmful, links from low-quality sources often pose a more immediate risk for a penalty because they are strong signals of manipulative intent. A low-quality source might be a known spam site or part of a PBN, whereas an irrelevant source might be a high-authority site that simply has no thematic connection to your business, making the link look unnatural.
Consider these key factors when evaluating the difference:
Low-Quality Sources: These sites often exhibit red flags like having no organic traffic, being part of a known link farm, having thin or auto-generated content, or linking out to spammy websites. They directly violate guidelines and are easier for Google to identify algorithmically.
Irrelevant Sources: A link from a high-quality cooking blog to your financial services firm is irrelevant. While not ideal, a few of these may not trigger a penalty, but a pattern of such links will devalue your profile and look suspicious.
Prioritize removing or disavowing links from clearly low-quality and spammy domains first, as they represent the most direct threat. A clean and relevant backlink profile is foundational to long-term SEO success.
This statistic, where Google confirms over 400,000 monthly manual actions, highlights the vast scale of attempts to manipulate search results and the company's commitment to policing them. It shows that relying on deceptive techniques is not a fringe activity but a widespread problem, making it essential for legitimate businesses to adhere strictly to webmaster guidelines to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
Common on-page tactics that frequently trigger a manual review include:
Keyword Stuffing: Unnaturally repeating keywords in content, meta tags, or alt text to the point where it degrades the user experience.
Hidden Text or Links: Using methods like white text on a white background or tiny font sizes to hide keywords or links from users but not from search engine crawlers.
Deceptive Redirects: Sending a user to a different URL than the one they initially clicked on in the search results, showing different content to search engines and users (cloaking).
Maintaining a user-first approach to content and site structure is the most effective way to avoid scrutiny. These numbers prove that trying to outsmart the system is a high-risk strategy with a low probability of long-term success.
The Mobilegeddon update serves as a powerful case study, teaching businesses that Google is increasingly prioritizing user experience as a core ranking factor. The key lesson is that technical compliance is no longer optional but a baseline requirement for visibility. Penalties are not just for spam but also for failing to meet user expectations on different devices.
For an e-commerce business, this historical example underscores the need for proactive adaptation in several areas:
Responsive Design: Your site must offer a seamless experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile, not just as a defensive measure against penalties but as a driver of conversions.
Page Speed: Just as mobile-friendliness became a ranking factor, page load speed (Core Web Vitals) is now critical. Slow sites frustrate users and are penalized.
Anticipating Future Updates:Google clearly signals its priorities. Businesses should monitor its official blogs and industry news to align their technical roadmap with upcoming changes, such as those related to security (HTTPS) or accessibility.
By viewing technical SEO through the lens of user experience, you can build a more resilient digital presence that is less vulnerable to future algorithmic shifts.
Engaging with Private Blog Networks (PBNs) is extremely dangerous because it is a direct and easily detectable violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, often leading to severe manual penalties that can get your entire site de-indexed. PBNs create a footprint that Google's sophisticated algorithms are specifically designed to identify, making any short-term gains highly volatile and risky.
The primary dangers include:
De-indexation Risk: When Google identifies a PBN, it often penalizes or de-indexes all sites within the network and, critically, all the sites they link to.
Wasted Investment: The money spent on PBN links is lost once the penalty hits, with no lasting value.
Difficult Recovery: Recovering from a penalty caused by PBN links requires a thorough link audit and disavowal process, which is time-consuming and not always successful.
Top-ranking sites build authority by earning links, not buying them. This involves creating valuable content that others want to cite, conducting original research, engaging in digital PR, and building genuine relationships within their industry. Learn how to build a sustainable strategy by exploring these proven methods.
Over-optimizing anchor text with exact-match keywords is a major red flag for Google’s algorithms because it signals an attempt to artificially manipulate rankings rather than reflecting natural linking behavior. The Penguin algorithm, in particular, was designed to devalue sites with such unnatural backlink profiles, as real people rarely link to content using perfectly optimized commercial phrases.
A healthy, diversified anchor text profile that appears natural to search engines should include a mix of the following:
Branded Anchors: Using your company or brand name (e.g., “Google”). This should be the most common type.
Naked URLs: The URL itself used as the anchor text (e.g., “www.example.com”).
Topic/LSI Anchors: Phrases related to the keyword but not an exact match (e.g., “search engine guidelines” instead of “Google penalty”).
Partial Match/Phrase Anchors: The keyword within a longer, more natural phrase (e.g., “this helpful guide on SEO”).
Striving for variety and relevance over keyword repetition is the key to building a resilient and penalty-proof backlink profile that stands the test of time.
As a retailer, you can perform a focused audit to prevent penalties by ensuring your on-page elements prioritize user value over aggressive optimization. This proactive approach helps you stay compliant with Google’s guidelines and build a foundation for sustainable growth.
A simple, three-step process is an excellent starting point:
Conduct a Content Quality Review: Systematically check your key product and category pages for thin, duplicate, or low-value content. Ensure each page offers unique descriptions, specifications, or user guides. Avoid copying manufacturer descriptions used on hundreds of other sites.
Audit for Keyword Stuffing and Hidden Text: Use a browser search function (Ctrl+F) on your pages to check keyword density. If a primary keyword appears unnaturally often, rewrite the text for a better flow. Also, check your site’s code and styling for any text that is hidden from users.
Evaluate Page Layout and Ad Density: View your pages as a user would. If the content is pushed far below the fold by excessive ads or promotional banners, it could trigger an “ad heavy” penalty. Ensure the primary content is immediately visible and accessible.
Regularly performing this audit can help you catch and fix common on-page issues before they escalate into a serious penalty. Discover more advanced techniques in the full guide.
Discovering that your site may be hacked or linking to spam is a critical issue that requires immediate action to protect your users and prevent a devastating Google penalty. A swift and methodical response can mitigate the damage and demonstrate to Google that you are responsibly managing your site.
Here is a direct plan to begin your recovery:
Confirm the Hack or Spam: Use the Security Issues report in Google Search Console. This is Google's official notification system for malware, hacked content, and other security problems. Simultaneously, use a tool to crawl your site and identify all outbound links, looking for any that are unfamiliar or point to low-quality or spammy domains.
Clean and Secure Your Website: Immediately contact your hosting provider to report the issue and ask for assistance. Change all access passwords, including for your CMS, FTP, and database. Remove any malicious code or spammy pages identified in the first step. If you are not technical, hire a professional security expert.
Request a Review: Once your site is completely clean and secured, use the Security Issues report in Search Console to request a review from Google. Provide details on the steps you took to fix the problem.
Acting decisively can make the difference between a quick recovery and a long-term penalty. Learn more about securing your site in our complete analysis.
As Google’s algorithms advance, your content strategy must shift from a keyword-centric approach to a user-centric one, focused on demonstrating expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. This evolution is essential for avoiding penalties, as algorithms are now better at distinguishing between content that simply exists and content that genuinely solves a user’s problem.
To future-proof your strategy, you should:
Focus on Topical Authority: Instead of targeting individual keywords, build comprehensive content clusters around core topics. This demonstrates deep expertise and provides more value than a single, thin article.
Prioritize Originality and Depth: Avoid creating content that just rephrases what is already on page one. Invest in original research, unique data, expert interviews, or detailed case studies that offer a perspective competitors cannot easily replicate.
Regularly Update and Prune Content: An effective long-term strategy involves not just creating new content but also improving or removing outdated and underperforming pages. This increases the overall quality score of your site.
By consistently creating high-value, in-depth content, you align your goals with Google's, making your site less vulnerable to penalties from future algorithm updates.
The primary implication for large e-commerce sites is an elevated risk of algorithmic penalties like Panda, which can suppress rankings for an entire category or site due to widespread duplicate content. When thousands of product pages use generic manufacturer descriptions, Google may view them as low-value and filter them from search results, severely impacting organic traffic and sales.
To strategically manage this at scale, you need a multi-faceted approach:
Prioritize and Write Unique Descriptions: Start with your top-selling products or most important categories. Write completely unique, benefit-focused descriptions for these high-value pages.
Leverage User-Generated Content: Encourage and prominently feature customer reviews, ratings, and Q&As on product pages. This is a powerful, scalable way to add unique and valuable content.
Use Canonical Tags Correctly: For products with minor variations (like color or size) that have separate URLs, use canonical tags to signal to Google which page is the master version to index, consolidating ranking signals and avoiding duplication issues.
Implementing a programmatic and prioritized plan for content uniqueness is crucial for long-term e-commerce SEO success. This transforms a potential weakness into a competitive advantage.
An 'Ad Heavy Page Layout' penalty is a direct consequence of your design choices, whereas a high bounce rate is an outcome of poor user experience, which can have multiple causes. The ad-heavy penalty is a more direct signal to Google that a site prioritizes monetization over user value, making it a clear violation of guidelines.
Here is a breakdown of the differences:
Ad Heavy Page Layout: This is triggered when an excessive number of ads, particularly above the fold, makes it difficult for users to access the main content. Google's Page Layout Algorithm specifically targets this. It is a direct result of a strategic decision to maximize ad placements.
High Bounce Rate: This metric indicates that users leave after viewing only one page. While it can be caused by an ad-heavy layout, it can also result from slow load times, misleading titles, or simply low-quality content that fails to meet user expectations. It is a symptom, not a direct cause of a penalty.
The ad-heavy issue is more directly tied to your monetization strategy and is easier for Google to algorithmically identify and penalize. A user-first design is the best way to avoid both problems.
Chandala Takalkar is a young content marketer and creative with experience in content, copy, corporate communications, and design. A digital native, she has the ability to craft content and copy that suits the medium and connects. Prior to Team upGrowth, she worked as an English trainer. Her experience includes all forms of copy and content writing, from Social Media communication to email marketing.
Growth Strategy and Planning
