{"id":4116,"date":"2017-04-14T09:59:49","date_gmt":"2017-04-14T06:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webceo.com\/blog\/?p=4116"},"modified":"2025-01-13T15:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T12:03:12","slug":"how-to-recover-from-a-google-penalty-advice-from-a-former-google-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webceo.com\/blog\/how-to-recover-from-a-google-penalty-advice-from-a-former-google-employee\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Recover from a Google Penalty. Advice from a Former Google Employee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Google employee Kaspar Szymanski has just talked about Google spam filters and shared his expertise about how to recover websites from all kinds of Google penalties. Kaspar had been part of the Google Search Quality team for 7 years, where he was the driving force behind global web spam tackling initiatives and the public face spearheading Google\u2019s webmaster outreach and communication efforts.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s proceed to what Kaspar said about manual spam actions, filters, bans and penalties.<\/p>\n

\"Kaspar<\/p>\n

Kaspar Szymanski<\/a>: ex-Google web spam hunter and SEO consultant specializing in backlink risk analysis + penalty recovery assistance<\/span><\/p>\n

The first and the most important recommendation is to read and re-read the Google Webmaster Guidelines<\/strong>. Following the Guidelines will help Google find, index and rank your site, and will assure that your site will not be removed from Google index for violations. Re-reading is really important as Google often updates the Guidelines and a technique that was legitimate yesterday might have become shady today.<\/p>\n

<\/span>What to Do if Google Has Penalized Your Site<\/span><\/h2>\n

Google\u2019s manual action email is not a death sentence. You should remember that all penalties have their period of validity and will not last forever. Besides, the penalty impact may be very different: it may be a tickle with a feather or it may be a real nuclear explosion.<\/p>\n

\"Types<\/p>\n

Your first task is to keep calm and investigate.<\/p>\n

1. Define the scope<\/strong><\/p>\n

Google may penalize the whole site, a site directory or one site page only. Perform a site:domain search to see if your site is still in the Google index.<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/p>\n

If the whole site has been removed from the Google index, you\u2019ll need a lot of work done.<\/p>\n

2. Find out the reasons<\/strong><\/p>\n

Google always explains the reason for a manual action via Google Search Console (Google Search Console<\/a> \u2192 Search Traffic \u2192 Manual Actions). Be sure to check the Manual Actions sections regularly.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Types of Google Penalties<\/span><\/h2>\n

Google Manual Actions messages always explain what caused a penalty and what should be done to recover from it.<\/p>\n

1. Major spam problem<\/strong><\/p>\n

Google may remove the whole site from its index when a major spam problem is found. A major spam problem is a violation of Google Webmaster Guidelines<\/a> (remember to read them regularly!)<\/p>\n

2. Thin content<\/strong><\/p>\n

If a site provides content with little or no value to searchers, Google may remove some parts of the site from the index.<\/p>\n

3. User-generated spam<\/strong><\/p>\n

This problem may occur with sites that allow posting links in a comment section with no moderation and without a NOFOLLOW attribute.<\/p>\n

4. Hacked content<\/strong><\/p>\n

Google may notice if your site was attacked by hackers and now promotes malicious content. The worst about this issue is that in the SERPs a \u201cThis site may be hacked\u201d notification may be shown for all pages of your site, even those that are OK.<\/p>\n

\"Google's<\/p>\n

5. Incorrect structured data<\/strong><\/p>\n

Structured data<\/a> is meant to help Google understand what a site is about. We\u2019ve noticed that adding structured markup greatly improves a site\u2019s visibility and rich snippets attract more clicks in the SERPs. However, some not-very-white-hat SEOers try to use schema to manipulate search results. For example, a brand review with 5\/5 stars by 300 people may trigger a Google manual review and spam actions.<\/p>\n

6. Selling links<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unnatural outbound links, i.e selling links violates the Google Guidelines and may be a reason for some manual actions applied. Links that are placed to manipulate the Google search results are considered unnatural.<\/p>\n

7. Buying links<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unnatural links that point to your site may also trigger a manual action. What looks unnatural to Google:<\/p>\n