Has your website been penalized by Google? If so, don’t panic – there are steps you can take to recover from the setback and regain your search engine ranking. A Google penalty can significantly decrease your visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs), making it crucial for you to understand why the penalty occurred and what steps you need to take to get your ranking back up.
A Google penalty can be given for numerous reasons, and can be either a manual or algorithmic action. Manual actions are penalties that a Google employee has reviewed and enforced, and algorithmic actions are those enforced by Google’s algorithms. Common reasons for a penalty include having spammy backlinks, keyword stuffing, cloaking, thin content, or other forms of black hat SEO. They can also be issued for a variety of other reasons related to quality and trustworthiness.
Step 1: Understand Why Your Site Was Penalized
The first step in recovering from a Google penalty is to determine why the penalty occurred. You can do this by analyzing your search console reports, checking backlink audits, and reviewing other data sources. Understanding exactly what caused the penalty will help you decide on the best course of action to take to get your site back up in the search rankings.
Step 2: Remove Low-Quality Backlinks
If you’ve been penalized because of low-quality backlinks, you need to take the time to get your backlink profile cleaned up. Look for backlinks that are non-relevant, coming from sketchy sites, have suspiciously high numbers, or are artificially generated. Work to manually remove these bad backlinks, and then disavow any that you are unable to remove. This process can be time-consuming, but it’s a crucial step in recovering from a Google penalty.
Step 3: Review Your Content Quality
If your site has thin content or content that is low-quality, you need to address this next. Look at your content and consider if it’s helpful to users, relevant to your keywords, and of a high-quality. You may need to revise some of your content or remove pieces of content that are not adding value. A general rule of thumb is to aim for your pages to have at least 300 words of high-quality content.
Step 4: Consider Your On-Page SEO
Once you’ve reviewed and improved your content, it’s time to evaluate your on-page SEO. Look at your title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and Image Alt Points to make sure they are fully optimized for your keywords. If you’re using keyword-stuffing or other outdated practices, then it’s wise to update your approach.
Step 5: Submit Your Reconsideration Request to Google
Once you have completed all of the above steps, it’s time to submit a reconsideration request to Google. In the message, you should clearly explain the steps that have been taken to rectify the problem and emphasize the changes made to improve the quality of your site. Make sure to provide specific details and evidence to support your message.
Conclusion
Having your website penalized by Google can be frustrating, but it’s important to not get discouraged. By following the steps in this guide, you’ll be well on your way to recovering from the penalty and regaining your former search engine ranking. Make sure to take the time to fully understand the penalty and then work to address the underlying issues. With hard work and dedication, there’s no reason why your site can’t be back on top.