It’s a common story: you optimize your site, watch your rankings climb, make a few more changes, and then suddenly your Page Rank crashes. There are several things that can cause this, but the most common factor is that you have been identified as a potential keyword spammer by Google and penalized accordingly. Google is always on the lookout for SEO cheaters, but this can cause a problem for legitimate website admins who are simply trying to maintain a decent Page Rank. Here is a step-by-step guide to getting off the blacklist and staying off.
#1 Identify the problem.
You can’t solve a problem before you know what it is. Often, the problem is that a website is over-optimized—that is, you simply have too high of a keyword to content ratio. Sometimes this happens organically; other times, the webmaster has been pushing the limits of legitimate SEO. You should rule out other causes, such as server downtime and losing links, before you begin making major changes to your website.
#2 Check Google Webmaster Tools.
Every webmaster, without exception, should have a Google Webmaster account, and identifying the cause of penalties is the main reason. Check for alerts and other warnings. This may tell you exactly what you are doing wrong and give you an idea of how to get back on Google’s good side as quickly as possible.
#3 Don’t try to fool users.
One of the fastest ways to get ‘sandboxed’ by Google is to be deceptive. That is, to create content specifically for search engines that is not accessible to normal website viewers. This can be done using text that is the same color as your background, page cloaking, and other methods. Resorting to deception rarely works in life or in search engine optimization. Being honest and open is the best way to stay in Google’s good graces.
#4 Use anchor text judiciously.
Because keyword stuffing is most often the problem, you need to start here. Make sure you can justify the keywords that you use as tags and in content. There’s no magic keyword density number, so let readability and common sense be your guide. Not that Google cares about your explanations; this merely will help you use keywords in a way that won’t get flagged in Google’s algorithm. As a bonus, this usually makes your website more readable and user-friendly as well. Be sure you are adding some fresh content when you are combing through your website, because this will boost your perceived value in search engine rankings.
#5 Avoid bad neighborhoods.
In the SEO world, a ‘bad neighborhood’ is basically a link farm. Google is really good at identifying these. Any links to your site from these will be at best completely ignored or, at worst, held against you. Get rid of these links, because they flag your site as not really legitimate in the eyes of search engines and users. In most cases, you aren’t getting any traffic from them anyway.
#6 Build legitimate links.
One other common cause of a Google penalty is that you are suspected of having links that were paid or traded for. One way of dealing with this is to stop (if you are indeed guilty of the offense) and focus on getting legitimate, organic links from websites that are related to your subject. Even if links aren’t the official reason for penalizing your website, having these organic links will build your Page Rank back up.
#7 Be wary of undeliverable promises.
Sometimes webmasters are tempted to hire an SEO consultant to optimize their site. It works for a while, and then their Page Rank is back in the gutter. Here’s a hint: if someone promises a specific result that sounds too good to be true, it just might be. Black hat and gray hat SEO techniques unfortunately will work for a while until Google catches on. Avoid people who make promises that they can’t keep with white hat methods.
#8 Start a blog.
Blogging—not on Blogger or another external site, but on your own dedicated website—is one of the best things that you can do for your website SEO. First, it ensures that you have a regular source of fresh, unique content, which search engines love. Second, it gives you a chance to experiment with new keywords and strengthen your site’s perceived relevance. It’s a win-win situation that you really can’t afford to miss. Try making a few short posts a week and see if that brings up your Page Rank.
#9 Look for duplicate content.
Many people try to build organic links and otherwise stimulate traffic to their website by submitting articles to popular websites. Unfortunately, some take a shortcut and submit content that is very similar (or even identical) to that on their own site. Regardless of how it happened, this must be fixed as quickly as possible to get your website back in good standing. It is very important that your website content be completely unique.
#10 Submit a new sitemap to Google and other search engines.
Once your website SEO issues have been “cleaned up”, redo your site map and resubmit it. This will give Google the chance to note that your site is free of problems and full of new, relevant content. You just may emerge with a higher page rank than ever thanks to the positive changes you have made!
Once you have completed these ten steps, all you can do is wait. If your Page Rank doesn’t begin a steady ascent in the near future, there is a good chance that you still have some problems. Getting ‘sandboxed’ is no fun, especially when it affects your profit as well as your ranking. However, in most cases, you can repair the damage and begin to rebuild your rank. The good news is that most of these changes are actually good for your website, so you will eventually emerge from your Google Penalty with a stronger, more optimized site.
