Google Penalty

Google Penalty is a punitive action taken by Google against websites that violate its Webmaster Guidelines. Penalties can result in:

1. Decrease in search rankings
2. Loss of traffic
3. Removal from search results (de-indexing).

The penalties come in two forms – manual actions from Google’s spam team and algorithmic penalties triggered by updates like Panda or Penguin.

Reasons for Google Penalty

1. Unnatural Links: These are artificial links created to manipulate a site’s ranking. They include purchased links, excessive link exchanges, and large-scale article marketing with keyword-rich anchor text.
2. Thin Content: This refers to content that adds little or no value to the user such as automatically generated content, doorway pages, scraped content etc.
3. Keyword Stuffing: Overusing keywords on your webpages with the intent to manipulate rankings can lead to penalties.
4. Hidden Text & Cloaking: Presenting different content or URLs to users and search engines is considered deceptive and violates guidelines
5. User-generated Spam: If your site allows user-generated content make sure it doesn’t contain spammy posts or comments.

How To Deal With Penalty

1. Identification: Use tools like ‘Manual Actions’ report in Search Console for manual penalties; For algorithmic ones check if there’s a correlation between drop in traffic/rankings & known update dates
2. Analysis: Identify which guideline has been violated based on penalty notification details
3. Correction: Take corrective measures such as removing unnatural links, improving thin content, eliminating hidden texts etc
4. Reconsideration Request: Once all issues have been fixed you can submit a reconsideration request through Google Search Console. Be transparent about what went wrong and how you’ve corrected it.

Prevention is better than cure. It’s always best practice not just correct violations but also put in place measures to prevent them. Practices like Black Hat SEO are not always worth it and contain serious risks. Regular audits, good SEO practices and staying updated on Google’s guidelines can help avoid penalties.