How To Tell If You Have A Google Ranking Penalty

A Google ranking penalty can have a huge impact on your business due to the dominance of Google as a search engine.

Ranking on Google is important to ensure that your potential customers can find you and ensure you get a return on your digital investment. Ranking for the right search terms can potentially make the difference between business success and failure.

There are lots of different advice out there on how to do this, however not all tactics that can get you higher up in the rankings are condoned by Google. When discovered you can see your website being punished by the search giant.

This punishment comes in the form of a Google ranking penalty. This can be manual or algorithmic and see your site drop in the rankings or disappear from the search engine entirely.

How Does Google Rank Websites?

Google wants to connect users of its search engine with the most relevant information as quickly as possible. Google rewards websites that provide clearly defined and high-quality information and does not display sites that are difficult to use and are of low quality.

It does this using an extremely complex and ever-changing algorithm which is not made available to the public. It does however issue guidance and good value web design and SEO companies watch this closely to ensure their clients comply.

Why Do Google Punish Websites?

The value of ranking at the top of Google means that less reputable companies will try and “cheat” the algorithm to appear above competitors with less effort.

These tactics are known as Blackhat SEO.

When Google discovers these attempts, they are punished to restore balance and discourage others to ensure they can connect users with the most useful search results.

This results in businesses being punished due to the actions of an outsourced SEO company if they are not acting in line with the rules.

How To Tell If You Have A Google Ranking Penalty?

If you are given a manual penalty by Google then they will tell you. If your site is poorly designed or has minor infractions punished by the algorithm, the first sign may be a drop-in revenue or website traffic.

Clues that you have had a Google Ranking penalty may include:

• Your website does not appear in results when you Google your business name
• Dropping down the rankings rapidly
• Messages within Google Search Console
• Complaints by customers that they cannot find you easily online

If you are unsure about your SEO position then give the Aspiring Panda team a call and we can investigate.

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.