What are the penalties you should know before taking SEO measures? Know the causes and countermeasures and take correct SEO measures

“Is there a penalty for SEO?”

“What can I do to avoid SEO penalties?”

If you are reading this article, you must be asking yourself the same questions.

In conclusion, SEO has the concept of penalty exists.

Therefore, it is necessary to operate the site in accordance with Google’s policies.

However, many people may not know what kind of site they should run.

In this article, we will comprehensively explain the types of SEO penalties, the causes of penalties, and how to deal with them.

If you are thinking about starting SEO or are worried about being penalized, please use this as a reference.

What is the SEO penalty?

First, let’s review what a penalty is.

SEO penalties are penalties given to websites that violate Google’s guidelines

Websites that receive a penalty may experience a significant drop in search rankings or have their web pages not displayed on search engines. They will disappear.

If your website is no longer displayed on search engines, users will no longer be able to access your website from search engines, resulting in a significant decrease in website traffic. I will do it.

If the amount of traffic to your website decreases, the number of inquiries and purchases will decrease as a result, which may affect sales to your business. Therefore, site operators need to try to operate their sites without being penalized.

There are also different types of SEO penalties.

In the next chapter, we will explain the two types of penalties, so if you are running a website, be sure to check them out.

Types of SEO penalties

There are two types of penalties for SEO:

I will explain each one.

Type 1. Manual penalty

The first is Manual Penalty.

Manual penalties are Employees of Google and Yahoo, which operate search engines, visually check a website and implement it if there is a problem. Penaltys.

If there is a manual penalty, you will be notified in Google Search Console.

Manual penalties should be avoided at all costs, as they may prevent your website from appearing in search results.

Also, manual penalties can be applied to the entire website or to a part of the website.

If any of the items below apply to you, you may receive a manual penalty, so be sure to check them.

• Auto-generated content
• Participating in the link program
• Creating pages with little or no original content
• Cloaking
• Invalid redirect
• Hidden text and links
• Guidance page
• Unauthorized content
• Affiliate sites that don’t add enough value
• Stuffing pages with keywords unrelated to the content
• Creating pages with malicious behavior such as phishing or installing viruses, Trojan horses, or other malware
• Structured data markup abuse
• Sending automated queries to Google

Source: Webmaster Guidelines (Quality Guidelines) | Google Search Central | Google Developers

Reference: Manual action report – Search Console Help

Type 2. Automatic penalty

The second one is Automatic Penalty.

Automatic penalties aresearch engines that automatically detect if there are elements on a website that are subject to penalties, and are given penalties if such elements are found. It is.

Many of the penalties given by search engines are called automatic penalties.

However, starting around 2021, Google will negate the effects of malicious websites rather than penalizing them. We have introduced measures.

For this reason, it is said that automatic penalties almost never occur these days, and that websites with malicious operations are simply wasting their costs. The situation has become.

So why do we get penalized?

In the next chapter, we will explain the reasons for receiving a penalty.

Please refer to it to check whether it applies to the website you are running.

Causes for receiving a penalty

There are two main reasons why you may receive an SEO penalty.

I will explain each one.

Cause 1. Low quality content

Poor quality content will result in penalties. may receive.

Low-quality content has no value to users, so search engines say’it doesn’t make sense to show it in search results’ This is because it can be perceived as

For example, the following are considered low-quality content:

• Copy content
• Unoriginal content
• Auto-generated content

Google says the following about low-quality content:

Google targets domains that try to improve their rankings by displaying unauthorized copies or pages with little original content and no value to users. We will take action against it.

Source: How poor content affects your site rankings | Google Search Central

Search engines are ultimately used by people (users), so it is necessary to take measures with user first in mind. Remember that there is.

Cause 2. Unnatural link

If your website has unnatural links may also be subject to penalties.

Google has introduced an “algorithm that evaluates websites based on links” called PageRank.

This is why links are so important in SEO.

However, because we place too much importance on links, we only increase the number of links, such as links from websites unrelated to our company or satellite sites, to improve our SEO rating. If you attempt to do so, you may be subject to penalties.

The following is mentioned regarding unnatural links.

Links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a linking program and may be may violate the Webmaster Guidelines (Quality Guidelines). This includes the act of operating links to and from your own site.

Source: Link program | Search Central

As stated here, not only incoming links but also outgoing links are subject to penalties.

In addition to gathering backlinks to your own site, refrain from posting links indiscriminately.

So how can you actually check if your site has been penalized?

In the next chapter, we will introduce three ways to check if your site has been penalized.

If you have received a penalty, you will have to take action, so please check it.

How to check if you have been penalized

There are two main ways to check if you have been penalized.

I will explain each one.

Method 1. Check the Google Search Console messages

If you receive a manual penalty, use the Message Center of Google Search Console or Manual Measures You will receive a notification.

Log in to Google Search Console and check “Manual measures” in the sidebar or “Messages” in the top right corner of the screen.

The content of the message will change depending on the content of the violation, so check the content of the message to understand the problem and take measures accordingly.

Method 2. Check from index deletion and decline in search rankings

In case of automatic penalty, you will not receive a message from GoogleThey have to judge for themselves whether they are being penalized.

First, check your site’s rankings in Google Search Console to see if there has been a significant drop in rankings.

If you notice a significant change in the ranking of your site, you should also be concerned that you may be subject to a penalty.

What to do when you receive a penalty

If you receive a penalty, you must identify and deal with the cause of the penalty and restore your search ranking.

With automatic penalties, it is difficult to identify the cause of the ranking drop, but with manual penalties, you can check the cause in a message.

If you receive a manual penalty, read the message and accept the penalty. Let’s improve the factors.

Also, if you can make improvements, you must submit a “re-examination request” in Google Search Console.

By sending a re-examination request, Google will determine whether the factors that caused the manual penalty have been improved, and if there are no problems, the penalty will be lifted.

Reconsideration requests can be made from “Manual actions” in Google Search Console.

Even if you request a reconsideration, it will take some time for the penalty to be lifted, so take action as soon as you see the penalty and request a reconsideration.

Correct way to run your site without getting penalized

If you receive a penalty, you will have to deal with it, but it is important to avoid receiving it in the first place.

To avoid penalties, be sure to operate your website in accordance with Google’s policies.

There are two main methods:

I will explain each one.

Create high-quality content

The first method is to create high-quality content It’s about making.

As mentioned above, Google penalizes low-quality content, so it’s no exaggeration to say that high-quality content is essential for SEO.

High-quality content refers to content that satisfies the user’s actual needs as well as latent needs, and that allows the user to take some action Masu.

By creating high-quality content, you can improve the reputation of your site.

There is no point in creating content like the following, as it does not benefit users.

• Copy content
• Dummy content
• Auto-generated content

Create high-quality content that will benefit users and convey the significance of your site’s existence.

Do not perform black hat SEO

The second method is to perform black hat SEO That means no.

Black hat SEO is a general term for SEO techniques that violate Google’s policies.

Performing black hat SEO may have a temporary effect on SEO, but in the end you will be penalized.

Therefore, instead of black hat SEO that violates the policy, take measures that are in line with the policy You need to engage in white hat SEO.

The main methods of black hat SEO are as follows.

• Keyword abuse
• Copy content
• Malicious backlink collection
• Abuse of second-hand domains
• Malicious curated content

If you are doing this type of SEO, we recommend that you quit immediately as you may be subject to penalties.

[Summary] Correct operation to avoid SEO penalties

SEO has the concept of penalty.

If you receive a penalty, your website’s ranking may drop significantly. Your website will no longer appear in search results.

If your website’s search ranking goes down, the traffic to your site will decrease, and as a result, your sales will decrease.

Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that SEO penalties are something that you must take measures against.

If you have not yet taken measures against penalties, please try the method introduced here.

However, if your website cannot be ranked higher than the penalty, you may want to consider hiring an agency.

Our company, Excore, is currently offering free SEO diagnostics for a limited time.

If you contact us using the button below, our consultants will suggest the necessary measures for your website free of charge.