Penalties in Google Search
Google and other search engines may penalize sites that are deemed low quality, spam, or are seen to be using manipulative SEO methods to rank higher. This will cause some websites to suffer in organic search results and can take time to rectify. As it is important to understand the cause of penalties and how to handle them, our SEO Office Hours notes below compile advice from Google’s “SEO Office Hours” sessions with recommendations for avoiding organic search penalties.
Only Use Disavow if WebSpam Team Would Likely Issue Manual Action
John recommends using the Disavow Tool if you think that the WebSpam Team would likely give you a manual action for the links in question. However, for most websites that aren’t actively attempting to manipulate rankings with suspicious link building practices it isn’t worth using the Disavow Tool.
No Penalty For Overuse of Fetch & Render But Limits Exist
There is no penalty for continual use of Fetch & Render, however there are some limits to the frequency with which you can use this tool.
Unresolved Manual Action Penalties May Take Years to Expire
If you ignore a manual action penalty, it may take years to expire. You should try to fix the cause, and submit a reconsideration request.
Submit Reconsideration Requests Separately For Different Subdomains
Submit reconsideration requests separately if manual actions have been received for different subdomains, and make sure the disavow files are updated for each one.
There is No Penalty For Hiding Content For Screen Readers
There is no penalty for hiding content on a page that has the sole purpose of being used for screen readers, as long as it is consistent with other content on the page. The web spam team may assess intent to deceive search engines in these cases.
The Web Spam Team is Actively Working to Deal With Sites Manipulating Rankings With Expired Domains
The Web Spam Team is actively working to deal with sites looking to manipulate rankings using expired domains. John says that this isn’t a simple loophole that’s being exploited, but there may be cases where people are getting away with these spammy techniques.
Internally Duplicated Content Isn’t Penalised But Can Waste Crawl Budget
Google doesn’t penalise sites for duplicating content internally but it can waste crawl budget.
Links Can be Ignored Algorithmically and Manually by Google
Links can be ignored algorithmically and manually by the Web Spam Team when they are taking manual action on a site to block the site from passing PageRank.
Avoid Linking Between Your Own Sites Unless Relevant to Avoid Manual Action
Make sure you only have relevant links between the sites you own, otherwise the Google manual action team could investigate your sites for implementing link exchange tactics.
SafeSearch Requests Can Take Weeks to be Processed
Requests to tell Google that your content is mistakenly being filtered by SafeSearch can take a few weeks to be processed by the SafeSearch Team.