Google penalty

Google dishes out penalties to websites that do not abide y the official guidelines. If your website has received one such sanctions, you can expect to see a sharp decline in your search results ranking, followed by a sudden drop in traffic. Those sanctions are sometimes the result of algorithm updates, but more often than not, they are given when it is discovered you’re using Grey or Black Hat SEO techniques. In its updates, Google will regulate certain elements of the algorithm more closely, resulting in certain techniques suddenly being classified as Black Hat. One other possibility is receiving a manual penalty by a Google employee. A manual sanction is the worst thing that can happen to your website with regard to online visibility. You will have to expend considerable effort to convince Google of your good intentions.

Manual Google Penalty

A manual sanction is the worst thing that can happen to your website with regard to online visibility. There are various reasons why you would receive a manual penalty. Unnatural backlink profiles, cloaking of images or content, keyword stuffing, low-quality content, manipulated structured data, and third party spam is some of the most common ones. If you do receive a manual penalty, Google will provide its reasoning in Google Search Console. In order to get out from under the penalty, you’ll have to expend considerable effort to convince Google of your good intentions.

Algorithmic Google Penalty

As opposed to manual penalties, algorithmic Google Penalties are the direct result of an algorithm update. When certain SEO techniques shift from White or Grey Hat to Black Hat, you will see a sudden drop in your online visibility. Luckily, it is relatively easy to recover from an algorithmic penalty, but prevention is still better than cure.