Google’s search engine provides a vital service to billions of people online. However, in order to guarantee user satisfaction, Google has to keep a close eye on the quality of its search results. If users start encountering irrelevant, broken, or dangerous links on search engine result pages, they might stop using Google’s services in favor of its competitors. To avoid this, Google search engine algorithms are constantly screening websites to ensure they meet certain quality standards. If a site is judged to be non-compliant, it can and will get penalized by Google in a number of different ways. Therefore, website owners who want to keep their sites indexed by Google should take steps to avoid these penalties at all costs.
Algorithmic and Manual Penalties
There are two kinds of penalties that Google can impose on a website. In a loose sense, a site can have its ranking demoted for failing to meet one or more quality standards. In a stricter sense, a site can be formally penalized for breaking explicit guidelines set out by Google. The first kind of penalty can be addressed simply by improving the experience of using the website in question (algorithmic). The second kind can only be removed by appealing directly to Google, after ensuring the site no longer violates the rules (manual). Both kinds of penalties will damage the online reputation and discoverability of a website. But the later can be harder to recover from.
Avoid Google Penalty by Keeping up with Algorithm Updates
Google’s search engine algorithms are undergoing constant updates. Web design practices that are fair-game at one point might become unacceptable after a particular update. This means that a website can also get penalized due to webmaster complacency. Therefore, in order to keep their websites eligible for Google’s search engine result pages, webmasters should avoid using unsavory practices, as well as update their sites regularly to comply with rule changes. To keep webmasters up-to-speed on what are the best practices for Google-friendly website management and design, we have created a handy reference guide provided in the rest of this article.
Practices to Follow
Before going into which practices to avoid in order not to get penalized, here are some that you should adopt by default.
1. Create Content for Users
Websites should be designed with end-users in mind, whether they are made for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Optimizing for search engines instead of users is counter-productive if done at the expense of creating quality content that provides value to the user. So make sure you avoid that mistake when creating your content.
2. Optimize for Speed
Content matters, but so does the experience of accessing it. Websites that take too long to respond and load are of little use to users, even if their content adheres to quality guidelines. Response times can be improved by using quality web-hosting services, while page load times can be optimized through a compact code and proper compression.
3. Adjust for Mobile
Mobile users account for the majority of the online populace in the world, according to studies by Statista. This makes designing websites for smaller screens and different user interfaces a priority. Implementing principles of responsive design is, therefore, the key to acquiring better search engine rankings.
Practices to Avoid
Over the years, many methods for obtaining better rankings came to be classified as unacceptable by Google and were subsequently implemented into their search algorithms. Waiting for Google penalty removal can take a long time, so it’s best to avoid these practices altogether.
1. Using Keyword Stuffing
“Keyword stuffing” is the practice of flooding your website with a large number of keywords, whether they are relevant or not. This includes spamming keywords without context. As creating arbitrary lists of terms or repeating the same sentences over and over again. Instead, keywords should only be used as an integral part of the content the site is providing. Provided they are useful to end-users.
2. Hiding or Masking Text
Related to keyword stuffing is the practice of concealing text. Hiding keywords or URLs by matching their font color with the page background and placing them behind images. Or displaying them off-screen constitute guideline violations as far as Google is concerned. And they are easy to detect as well, so using them will get you sanctioned with a Google penalty.
2. Using Cloaking
“Cloaking” is the practice whereby a website displays different content to users and to search engines. This can lead to the situation where what appears to be legitimate content to the search engine is, in reality, worthless for the user. To avoid getting penalized for this, make sure the site is optimized to present the same content for identical search queries.
3. Creating Doorway Pages
A “doorway page” is most commonly a website whose sole purpose is to rank high for particular keywords. They are used to redirect users to sites that they might have otherwise reached directly, adding an unnecessary middle step to the process. Because they offer no valuable content to the user, they regularly get a Google penalty. And as a result, they get lower rankings, so it makes them unreliable in the long run.
4. Manipulating Inbound and Outbound Links
Links are one of the criteria which Google uses to evaluate the authority of a website for a given topic. Because of this, Google considers link manipulation to be a serious violation of its guidelines. Link tampering is usually accomplished by buying or selling links from/to link farms, link exchange, or having low-quality links in general.
5. Reusing Content
Offering content that provides no additional value is a violation of Google’s user-centric policy. It can include hosting plagiarized content, machine-generated content, or content that has only been slightly modified. Additionally, republishing content can lead to copyright infringement, which can have serious consequences for your website.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the best practice when it comes to search engine optimization is simply to create something that is useful to users. Up to this point, Google has managed to counteract every attempt to game the system. And nothing indicates that this will change anytime soon. So instead of trying to one-up search engine providers, website creators should focus on providing the best possible service to consumers. That way they can ensure to lower the possibility of getting a Google penalty.
Latest posts by Tony Solomon (see all)
- 5 Best Practices to Avoid a Google Penalty - April 23, 2018
