DW Tips

If you are a small business owner with a website, then the last thing you want is a notice from Google saying that your site has received a manual SEO penalty. This kind of penalty is not related to broad algorithm changes like Panda or Penguin. It is directed at your site for some particular reason and means that you have violated Google's webmaster guidelines. As a result, the search giant has demoted your site in the rankings or removed it from the search index altogether.

While this can be devastating for a small organization that depends on the leads generated by its website, it is possible to recover from a manual penalty.  Sites receive penalties for a number of reasons, including thin content, cloaked content, sneaky redirects, unnatural linking schemes and more.  Google will let you know the reason for the penalty and give you a chance to fix the problem.  You can then ask for a review.

The review, though, is no guarantee that your site will regain its lost search rankings.  Some sites ask for the review and fail.  According to Google's John Mueller, there are two reasons for this.

Not Enough Perspective

One reason sites fail is because is the webmaster does not have enough objective perspective to clearly see the problem the way Google does. What seems like a small issue to you might seem glaring to Google. Mueller suggests getting other webmasters to take a look at your site to give you an honest evaluation.  The Google help forum, private webmaster forums and Facebook groups are places to look for help.

Problem Not Completely Resolved

Second, sites fail the review because the webmaster does not completely fix the problem.  According to Mueller, the issue that Google points out must be completely resolved across the entire site.  In other words, a half-hearted attempt is not good enough. You have to go through the entire site page by page to ensure that everything is up to snuff.

So although a Google manual penalty can strike fear in the heart of any business owner, it does not have to be the end of the world. An unbiased look by an outsider and a thorough revamping to fix the issues will get your site in tip-top shape for the review.  With luck, your website will soon be back in Google's good graces and ranking in the SERPs just like before.

If you are in the market for a custom website, then please contact us.  Our experienced team looks forward to working with you.