If you want your business to be successful in the modern era, you must think carefully about how your website ranks and search results on Google. Google is still the most popular search engine in the world, and people use it on just about everything. Therefore, if you want to generate more traffic for your business, you have to stay up to date on your Google rankings. From time to time, you may be hit by a Google penalty. If this happens, your website is not going to be as visible, impacting your organic traffic. This may also mean that you are not generating as much revenue. The faster you can diagnose a Google penalty, the sooner you can fix the problem. How can you know if you have been hit by a Google penalty? Learn more below, and make sure you take care of your online presence.
What Is a Google Penalty?
There is an entire industry surrounding Google’s algorithm, and there are some people who use unscrupulous methods to try to improve their ranking. If Google believes something is happening that adversely impacts the experience of its users, it may hit that website with a penalty. A penalty is a punishment against a website that is not abiding by the marketing practices enforced by Google. For example, an update may take place in Google’s ranking algorithm, leading to a penalty. Or a website may be using specific black hat SEO tactics. Businesses must make sure they stay up to date on changes and the Google algorithm, so they do not get hit by a penalty. In this situation, it is important to work with professionals who can stay on top of this information, such as the team from BizIQ.
Everyone uses search engines to find products and services, and businesses rely on traffic from search engines to generate revenue. Therefore, businesses have to stay up to date on the latest algorithm changes. If websites were able to respond faster to changes in the algorithm, they have a competitive advantage.
How can websites make sure they are not hit by a Google penalty?
Stay Up To Date on Algorithm Changes
Of course, the easiest way to deal with algorithm changes is to stay up to date on them. Even though the specifics of Google’s algorithm are a closely guarded secret, Google does make announcements when there are major changes that take place. For example, there was a massive update when Google announced Panda in 2011. Then, there was another major announcement when Google announced today Secure Update in 2014. This was quickly followed up by another major announcement when Mobilegeddon took place in 2015.
Even though it is easy to overlook these announcements, they can have a significant impact on the amount of traffic flowing to a website. As a result, all businesses need to make sure they stay up to date on this information so they can make adjustments quickly. This is one of the best ways to avoid getting penalized by Google.
Audit the Website Regularly
Next, businesses also need to conduct an audit of the website regularly. Even though it can take a lot of work to analyze the individual metrics of an entire website, there are automated tools that can make this go faster. There is a list of things that websites can be penalized for that they need to avoid. These include:
- Businesses need to make sure that their content does not contain a lot of pop-out ads. If a company contains a lot of pop-out advertisements, Google is going to penalize that website because it was going to adversely impact the experience of music.
- Companies also need to make sure their content is not too short. If the content is too short and unedited, Google is going to penalize that website because the content is not going to be as good.
- Even though Google takes a look at websites and looks for keywords, companies need to make sure the content is not stuffed with keywords. Content that is keyword stuffed is going to get penalized.
- Companies also need to make sure they are not buying excessive backlinks or cloaking keywords across the page. This is going to harm the user experience, and Google will penalize the website.
- The website also has to have a legitimate security certificate. Google takes the safety of its users very seriously, and websites need to show they are following the latest security practices.
- Websites that take too long to load are also going to be penalized. Businesses need to take a look at their bounce rate and speed from time to time to make sure it is optimal.
- If websites are plagiarizing a lot of content from other websites, they are going to get penalized. Make sure you are not unintentionally plagiarizing someone else’s work.
These are just a few of the many reasons why a website might get penalized. Businesses need to stay up to date on everything that is happening with the website because it can impact their traffic.
Work with Professionals To Avoid Google Penalties
Ultimately, companies need to make sure they stay up to date on the latest changes in Google’s algorithms because this is going to have an impact on their website traffic. Because a lot of businesses generate significant revenue from online traffic, they need to make sure they take care of their online presence. Because there is a lot to do daily, it is better to rely on professionals who have experience in this area. If you work with a technology team that specializes in digital marketing, you can make sure you get the most out of your website without falling prey to certain penalties. This is not something you have to go through on your round, so remember to reach out to professionals who can help you maximize your organic traffic.
