Do you need to increase your conversion rate and Optimize your Website to Avoid SEO Penalties?
You might want to start with optimizing your website. SEO penalties are a big deal for any business that relies on the internet. For some companies, it could mean cutting back hours or even shutting down completely.
If you don’t know how to avoid an SEO penalty, then this blog post is just for you! We will talk about steps to ensure that your site doesn’t get penalized and keep getting traffic in the future.
Let’s get started!
Avoiding Duplicate Content:
When your content is duplicated on other sites, it can be harmful to your SEO. A good way to avoid this duplication is by making sure that all of the content on your site has something unique about it. There are many ways to do this, including adding more information to the page, being more detailed in your content, or creating unique headers to make sure that search engines know you are different.
Getting Rid of Spammy Links:
You want people coming to your website because they want what you have, not because they were tricked there by spammy links. It is important to remove any suspicious sites from linking to your website so that you can avoid being labeled as a spammer. If Google catches on, they will be more likely to penalize your site and could possibly take away all of the traffic it is gets because of those links!
Avoiding Duplicate Meta Tags:
Your meta tags are what make up the “about us” section of your website. Make sure to fill out all of the features so that search engines know what you are about and can distinguish between other similar websites.
Misconfigured Robots Txt File:
Bots use your robots txt file to tell them how they should crawl your site, but if this file isn’t formatted properly, they could end up crawling it wrong. This can cause all of the links on your site to be crawled and indexed by search engines, making them think that your website is spammy or a duplicate.
Avoiding Hacked Site:
If you notice sudden changes in traffic, then there might have been something done to make your website spammy. This could be done by a hacker who is trying to spread malware or get you to click on suspicious links in order for them to make money from your clicks. In this case, it would be best if you fixed the problem before Google caught wind of what was going on!
Avoiding Irrelevant Anchor Text:
When you link to one page from another, make sure that the anchor text is relevant and not spammy. If it isn’t relevant, then your site will look like a piece of junk, and no one will want to go there!
Avoiding Site-Wide Links:
It’s important to never add links on any other web page on your website that will send people to spammy or irrelevant sites. If you do, then Google could think it is a way for all of the links from your site to lead back to spam, and they might penalize you!
Avoiding Duplicate Title Tags:
Search engines use your title tag to let people know what your page is about, and it should be original. If you have multiple pages with the same title, then Google will think that all of these titles are spammy and could penalize them! Keep in mind that changing your layout or design will not count as a new title tag.
Avoiding Over-Optimization:
When you have too many keywords in your meta tags or content, then it will be spammy and could lead to an SEO penalty. Google is looking for original websites with good content that don’t look like they are trying too hard! Make sure to write naturally and if you need to, add a few keywords in your meta tags.
Avoiding Hacked Content:
Hacked content is when someone has added spammy or irrelevant links into the content that makes up your website. These hacked contents show up as pop-ups or weird-looking boxes on pages from time to time, which means that the content has been modified to make it look spammy. If you see this, then you will need to change all of your meta tags and remove any hacked content!
Avoiding Keyword Stuffing:
Keyword stuffing is when someone tries to add as many keywords into one page or paragraph, which makes it too hard for readers to understand what is going on! Keep your content as original and easy for readers as possible.
Include Your Website in Social Media:
Social media can be a great way of increasing traffic, but you need to make sure that the links from social sites lead back to your website! If people don’t end up where they think they are going, they will leave your site and never return. Make sure to link to all of these social sites from somewhere on your website where it is easy for readers to find!
Avoiding Doorway Pages:
Doorway pages are when someone creates multiple versions of the same page in order for you to get ads or make money from clicks. These pages might look like they are about the same thing, but in reality, one is affiliate links, and another will make you download something, which means that your site could get penalized!
Avoiding Opinion Spamming:
Opinion spamming is when someone tries to leave comments or posts on other people’s blog posts that are not relevant to the content. These comments will show up as spam, and Google might think it is a way for your website to get traffic from something that isn’t useful!
Avoiding Hiding Text:
If you try hiding words or sentences on pages, then all of this text won’t be visible in search engines, which means that it won’t get indexed! Google might think that your website is trying to hide something, and they could penalize you for this.
Avoiding Bad Neighborhoods:
Bad neighborhoods are when someone tries leaving spammy comments on other people’s websites, which means that the whole neighborhood will look bad on search engines. This can lead to an SEO penalty because Google thinks that the whole neighborhood is spammy!
Avoiding Cloaking:
Cloaking is when someone creates multiple versions of the page in order to get more ads or make money from clicks. This could be done by a user agent, which means that people using search engines will see one thing while people visiting your site will see something else! Keep all content on a single version of any web page to avoid this!
Blocking Google Bots:
Google bots are the people working on search engine optimization. If you block these bots, this could lead to your site being penalized because they think it is spammy! Make sure to always let them crawl all of your web pages so that everything gets indexed and ranked correctly. Also, make sure that no blocked resources might lead to your site not getting indexed!
Don’t Place Too Many Ads In “The First Fold”:
If your web page has a ton of ad content that can be seen without having to scroll down, then this could lead Google to think that you are trying to get traffic from something less than useful! Keep websites clean, and don’t try placing as many ads above the fold, which helps improve mobile loading speeds.
Keep Your Site Updated:
If you don’t keep your website updated, then Google might think that it is no longer relevant because of outdated information! Always try updating content and making sure everything looks fresh so that search engines can index all of your latest web pages! Make sure to link up any new web pages to older ones so that everything is easy for readers!
Track User-Generated Spam:
User-generated spam is when someone leaves comments or posts on other people’s websites that are not relevant to the content. This could be done by a user agent, which means that Google might think your site contains a lot of this junk! Track what users do and make sure they aren’t leaving any irrelevant information for search engines to crawl around.
Don’t Forget About Internal Linking:
Internal linking is when you link to other pages on your website. This helps keep everything relevant and organized so that readers will always have a way of finding what they are looking for quickly! Make sure there are no broken links or internal redirects which can cause indexing issues!
How To Recover From A Penalty:
If you get a penalty, then this means that Google thinks your site has done something spammy, and they will not index it! There is no way to recover from the first day of getting penalized, but if there were any actions taken after the initial action towards recovery, those would need to be fixed as soon as possible. If your site has been penalized, then make sure to always stay up-to-date with Google’s guidelines and follow them!
Tools Which Can Help You Avoid Penalty
Google Analytics: This free program allows you to monitor almost anything about a webpage, including where traffic comes from, where it goes, etc. Make sure to regularly check this program, so you know what your website is doing!
Google Search Console: This can be used to monitor how Google indexes a site and make sure nothing spammy has occurred. This makes the job of avoiding penalties that much easier!
Yoast SEO Plugin: Use this plugin on any WordPress website to optimize everything correctly. There are a ton of features that can help you get your website on track, including SEO titles, meta descriptions, page analysis, and many more!
SEMrush: This great software allows users to monitor keywords being used in search engines, so Google knows how to rank them. Feed this information back into the website and keep everything up-to-date with fresh content.
Click here to read about the 16 Hidden Truths of SEO
Conclusion:
It is really important to optimize your website so that it can avoid any SEO penalties. Make sure everything is relevant and unique by following the tips outlined in this article!
Don’t forget about the number of images on a webpage. Make sure everything is relevant and unique so that your site can avoid any possible penalties! Also, remember that you need to have optimized meta tags for your website so it can rank better in search engines!
