In the 15 or so years I’ve done SEO work, I’ve “survived” most of the updates Google released but on a few occasions was hit with a penalty.
These experiences taught me a lot about how to avoid this problem and recover from it if my site/s were hit which is what I want to share with you in today’s article.
Here is a quick history of my experiences with the Google penalty:
- From 2007-2009 I had a lot of 1st page rankings on many of my sites/articles.
- In 2010, I was hit with my first ever Google penalty and it destroyed 2 of my websites.
- In 2013 through 2019, I have (and still do) a lot of blogging and SEO (successfully).
- In late 2019, a Google core update hit one of most profitable blogs (it took a year to recover).
- In 2020, I began making 2 major blogs with long term intent for SEO.
- In 2021, those 2 blogs were hit with the Google core 2021 update (negatively impacted but not penalized).
- Luckily, both my blogs recovered and are growing since.
Now with all of these experiences that I just shared about the Google updates and penalties:
- 85% of the time, my sites were fine.
- 10% of the time, an update did mess up a few sites (it wasn’t a penalty though).
- 5% of the time, I was hit with a Google penalty (and deservingly so).
But overall, I have a bunch of experience with SEO given all of these things I just shared and the great news is that I know a lot about and in this context.
And in today’s article on the Google penalty, I want to share the following things:
- How to avoid the Google penalty in the first place.
- The difference between a penalty and ranking drops by Google.
- How to recover your site if it’s taken a hit in the rankings or if it’s been penalized.
- How to ensure your success in SEO is long term and penalty proof.
There’s a lot of misunderstanding around this whole subject which is why I divided it into these 4 sections.
It’ll help clear up what you need to know and to take the right decisions to recover your site, avoid the penalty (if you’ve never been hit before) and recover if you have.
So let’s discuss all of this right now:
First, here’s an important video on the Google Penalty (and avoiding it):
1) How do you avoid the Google penalty?
With different people in the SEO preaching different things, it’s tough to know what works, what doesn’t and what might lead to your site getting penalized by Google.
I won’t say I’m the biggest SEO expert (the best guy I know is my affiliate coach Jay), but my generally good SEO resume speaks for itself, so with that said, let me share the following:
- High quality content is the best way to avoid the Google penalty.
- Consistent high quality content on your site is what gives it authority (and SEO success).
- Backlinking your site and blog in the proper ways does help in many ways, but ultimately, it’s not as big of a deal as the focusing on high quality content.
2) What’s the difference between an update hitting your site vs a Google penalty?
A lot of people don’t know this but just because your rankings drop after a Google update does not mean you’ve been hit by a Google penalty.
A) An algorithm hit typically just shows up as reduced rankings and traffic on Google (even if it’s as big as 50% drops) and that’s actually something you can recover from.
2) A Google penalty on the other hand can come in the forms of complete drops in traffic (80% and up), a de indexing of your site on Google (It won’t show there) and the recovery from that is nearly impossible.
One of the ways to find this out is to connect your website with Google’s search console which lets you know if there have been any “manual actions” or “security actions” taken against your site by Google (more info on Google manual actions). If it shows that they were, then it’s been with a Google Penalty and it if it hasn’t, then it’s just a Google update negatively impacting your site (which is recoverable).
3) Can you recover your website if it’s been hit with a Google update or penalty?
For Google updates, it’s very possible and in many instances:
When Google updates hit your site and you honestly didn’t do anything wrong, you may just have to wait it out for things to recover as sometimes a Google update hitting your site doesn’t mean you did something wrong.
In the long run, this is how it figures itself out and I have at least 3 personal experiences with this that show that. Furthermore, sticking to the main principal of high quality content creation is what will help you recover from any update that hits your site negatively.
For Google penalties, the climb out of that is a lot more difficult if not impossible:
If your site has been hit by things like malware or toxic backlinks (don’t buy mass backlink services), then removing those things and cleansing your website off that can lead to success.
However, most people who get caught with a Google penalty usually have it happen because they manually did the wrong things on their site that led to it. It could be things like:
- They copied other’s people’s content (duplicate content).
- They used mass toxic backlink packages they thought would boost their site.
- They engaged in private blog networking which can sometimes work but it’s not something Google likes.
- They engaged in what is referred to as black hat SEO.
If and when Google catches a site for this, a penalty follows in order to get rid of that, you have to identify what led to the penalty, remove that problem (like toxic backlinks) and then wait out the recovery period.
My personal advice if you’ve had this happen (like it did for 2 of my sites in the past) is to drop the site, start a new one and never do what you did on the old one which led to the penalty. The stress of recovering a site from a penalty (which is possible but rare) is just not worth the time and effort when you can just wipe the slate clean with a new one.
There are some sites and sources like Search Engine Land which talk about recovery from penalties here.
4) Can you ever make your site Google penalty proof?
If you don’t do black hat SEO and consistently create high quality content on it, then you are 99% protected from any Google penalty.
An update might come around from time to time which can temporarily affect your site, but in the long run, it will recover on it’s own and thrive so long as you stay the course.
5) Let’s talk for a moment about Google not indexing blog posts (is it a sign of a penalty?):
One of the biggest issues SEO people experienced last year (and in 2022) is that Google was not indexing their blog posts, and this applies to me too. When I first stumbled onto this problem, I immediately though that perhaps my site was on the verge of getting hit by a Google penalty.
I quickly learned that Google not indexing your blog posts is NOT a sign that it is penalizing your site. In fact, if you check for manual actions in search console and don’t see anything, you should be fine. In other words, this particular issue is separate from Google penalties.
However, it’s still a problem as you WANT all your content indexed and ranked by Google. I included a link above in this particular part of the post to help you solve this problem (I’ve found multiple solutions for this).
Why I still focus on SEO despite all of the Google updates, penalties and so forth:
The short answer to this is that there are many ways you can make money online, and aside from blogging and SEO work, many of those methods have become a lot more constrained and difficult to use, thus causing an increase in costs to happen. This is something I’ve heard some major players in the online world talk about such as Russell Brunson of Experts Secrets.
For example (7 different ones):
1) With YouTube ads, there have been many (negative) changes in it’s operations in 2021 which makes it a lot harder to get targeted traffic for lower costs. In short, prices have risen to do pay per click work on this network.
2) With Bing Ads, a lot of bugs, competition, a lot of good information being omitted, has made it more difficult to use this place (I used to use it a lot and made good money with it, and I still do use it, but way less).
3) With Facebook Ads, generally, there’s been a lot of extra red tape across the board in making ads that convert, and prices have risen also.
4) With eCommerce, you have to rely a lot on paid ads, which as I said above have increased costs, so it’s tougher to run the site because of those costs.
5) With drop shipping, a lot of places which used to allow it (like Amazon and eBay) no longer do, thus making people rely on paid ads and I need not repeat the problems there.
6) With Google Ads, it doesn’t take a lot to get your account suspended and then have difficulty in recovering it.
7) With solo ads, forget it, you’re just throwing away money 99% of the time to people who can’t really guarantee you good, targeted clicks and visits.
With all of these options I showed you, I still use a lot of them today, but have to reconfigure how to apply them better in today’s changing online world and when I do, I’ll provide updated content on that, but the point is, those methods are tougher to use and come with their own cons.
Ok, so what’s still a good way to succeed online Vitaliy?
Blogging, SEO and generally email marketing are still one of the best things to use for online success today and blogging for instance is still very beginner friendly to enter into, despite there being Google updates happening throughout each year.
The positive note to end on:
I don’t want people to read this and be very negative about their odds of success, especially if they’re new. Know that success in the online world is still a huge open window for you and following the advice of experts and training in places like Wealthy Affiliate is where you can stay on top of these changes, and thrive over them.
Hi man, how are you? I am wondering how can I check whether an outsourced article is %100 unique or not?
The only program I know of is Copyscape for thi Furkan. You can also take chunks of text (several sentences) and paste them (with quotes around them) in Google to see if anything pops up.
Thank you for the answer man and have a good day there.
Anytime Furkan 🙂
Hi man, I really want to know your take on something:
My site name includes specific boxing equipment and best. It is basically an exact match domain.
I believe that things are going okay and it became more authoritative over time. I have written a lot about different martial arts topics including MMA, BJJ over the years and I actually get more traffic to these posts/pages. For example, it got ranked on page 1 for a very competitive keyword which is about another martial art.
Even though is not “brandable” and ideal it seems to work well and rankings are okay and I saw that there are sites like this and are very successful. I believe that you said it is okay before, however what is your take on this and I really want to know should I do something different to improve the results?
PS: However, I will generally stick to boxing topics and try not to deviate a lot.
If I understand your question correctly, you’re asking me about your domain name being brandable right? If so, then you can’t really change your domain once you have it, so I would honestly leave it as is, especially considering it’s already an authority.
You don’t always have to go the brandable route and choose domain names that can become a hit and you can go to the exact match domain route. I just think the latter is a bit cheesy nowadays, but if it works for you (which you say it does), then there’s no need to adjust or change anything as far as I see it.
Yeah, I am talking about my existing website. It has a few rankings on the first page under very competitive keywords that are about different martial arts. I wouldn’t say it is very authoritative but considering these and the number of keywords, it is going in the right direction, right? So, I guess I just need to continue what I am doing. What is your opinion about this?
Also, my second question is do you think I need to do something else while targeting keywords that are about different topics? And I really appreciate your time and responses man.
Well dude, you kind of answered your first question in a way. Think about it: If you have articles ranking on page 1 for competitive keywords like you said, then you’re clearly doing the right thing and should continue along this same path.
Regarding your second question, I assume you’re asking me if you should expand your content topics on the site to get more traffic. The answer is yes and at the same time, every bit of new content you write on new topics should still be related to your martial arts topic/s. That way it stays relevant.
Typically, writing up about popular topics on martial arts and doing product reviews on martial arts gear is what I would center your focus on. I know you’re a member of Wealthy Affiliate, but are you a member of it’s Premium Plus program? If so, I have made a special webinar there talking about this particular topic and how to find endless ideas to blog about based off this example (and any niche examples for that matter).
I understand. Sometimes, I just don’t feel confident about it and even if I see some improvement I sometimes still question whether I am doing things right or wrong. I know what you meant exactly by writing about relevant topics so that the site can gain authority easier in the niches that are relevant to the original niche.
Thanks for the answers man and have a good day there.
Sure no problem man. I would also consider starting a new niche site in 2022 if you have any topic (other than martial arts) you really like. By this point, you have enough experience to make another niche site and if it’s in a topic you love, you’ll find it’ll grow pretty quickly.
Hi man,
I really want to ask you something. I just realized that I chose the organization option In All In One SEO. I guess I was planning to make it an “organization” sooner or later and I didn’t type a name for the organization.
Should I change it to personal? Or what do you recommend? I know my questions are a little bit unusual as there are many periods that I don’t work on the site at all and I really appreciate your answers man.
Nah it doesn’t make a big difference. Leave it as is if it’s not being annoying.
alright thank you for the answer man
Anytime!
Alright, I just did it. I deleted one user and redirected it to the other. The user name remained “Micheal” and nickname, which shows up for ALL the posts is “Furkan” . Thanks for your answers man and have a good day there.
No problem!
Hi,
A couple of years ago I updated the author name in WordPress. However, the URL slug for the author remained the same. That is fine for me. However, does this create any issues? Or should I leave it as it is?
PS: I did this 3 years ago.
As a whole changing your name in general doesn’t have a big negative affect on SEO, so you should be fine there (and it’s been 3 years so if anything were bad, it would have showed up by now).
I would however make sure that you tie your site to your name because authority on a website comes not just from creating high quality content, but also have a recognizable name. I wouldn’t use “admin” or a nickname. Use something that is authentic and helps people feel connected to YOU as a person. That creates more trust, loyal subscribers and better SEO in the long run.
Hi man, I understand. I have this plan. I have two users (authors).
1. User’s name is Micheal and the nickname is Furkan. Furkan shows up in the posts.
2. User’s name is Furkan89 and the nickname is Admin.
I plan on deleting the 2. User and after that, changing the nickname of 1. user to Micheal. Because I can’t change the username of 1. user to Furkan as it does not allow it and only the nickname can be changed.
After that, I will redirect the deleted user to the existing user with the redirection plugin.
I can do this or if you don’t like this plan what is your suggestion?
That’s fine as long as there’s a consistent author name across the site and posts. What I would do first is just mass update the author’s name across your site to the one you want first, then delete the other one after.
Thank you so much for the answer man. However, I wonder about something.
Almost all the posts’ author is Furkan which is the nickname and not the user name. However, its user name is Micheal.
So I wonder can I just delete the 2. user (User name: Furkan89, Nickname: Admin ) and redirect it to 1. user and leave the 1. user’s nickname as Furkan?
Also, the 1. user’s name (Micheal) and nickname (Furkan) are different. Would this be okay? In addition to this, the URL slug is Micheal of 1. user.
I am sorry if this is confusing as I couldn’t find a decent answer online and thanks again for the answers man.
Whatever name you use on your about me page, that’s the name you will want to have across all your posts and it’s author name. Keep it simple bro, you’re complicating things. Keep your SEO and consistency simple and straight forward.
Hi,
My site did not get hit this time but before it got hit a few times. I actually think the same as you. When some site owners gave up, I have more opportunities to get more rankings. And on top of that, I always try to improve my site’s authority and in the future it will be easier to get more rankings.
Lately, I started working on the site again and I have over 3000 keywords on Semrush. I have more page 1 rankings this year. I think if I improve my site more I can earn more revenue. My question is do you think I just continue what I am doing (writing good content, updating older content, optimizing page speed etc). Or should I do other things for this site?
Honestly, you’re doing what has always worked for SEO Furkan and as you have already seen, with this latest Google update, it’s working for you, so why change that up? The core stuff always worked so I would continue focusing on that.
The only thing I would adjust is trying to rank for larger volume keywords even if their competition is a little higher than most keywords you chase. With an authority site, you should be able to get some if not all the good rankings for the big keywords, get that larger traffic and keep growing the site.
You may also want to consider an email list on your site too.
Thanks for the answer man. Yeah, I agree with that and already started pursuing larger keywords. Hopefully, I can produce some more really good content in these months and the site will gain more authority.
I don’t think you need to hope for it Furkan. You already have all the content generating skills to do this, so make it happen 🙂