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How to identify and counteract them
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Bans, Filters and Penalties
How to Detect and Counteract Them
SEM Days @irishwonder
What Can Affect a Site in Google? Bans Penalties Filters
Ban ≠ Penalty ≠ Filter!!!
@irishwonder
USA.com Case
(See the complete story at http://www.seroundtable.com/google-drops-usadotcom-13651.html)
@irishwonder
USA.com Case: Fast Forward 7 Months
“About 3,470,000 results” – sites are not delisted forever
@irishwonder
USA.com Case: Fast Forward 11 Months (Post-Panda and Penguin)
“About 1,400,000 results” – however things can change both ways over time
@irishwonder
Power Tip It’s a good idea to keep track of a site’s
number of pages in Google index as it changes over time
@irishwonder
12/3
1/07
1/1/
08
1/2/
08
1/3/
08
1/4/
080
1000
2000
3000
domain.comdomain2.com
Google Webmaster GuidelinesThings to Keep in Mind: Typically bans and penalties happen due to Google
Webmaster Guidelines violations Sites don’t get banned or penalized as soon as you
violate anything – only when Google discovers violations
Google Webmaster Guidelines is what Google wants site owners to do, not an enforceable law
Google employs human reviewers but they only refine the algorithm, not influence specific SERPs directly
Google encourages spam reports from users and relies on them where it cannot clean up its results automatically
@irishwonder
Google Webmaster Guidelines Avoid hidden text or hidden links. Don't use cloaking or sneaky redirects. Don't send automated queries to Google. Don't load pages with irrelevant keywords. Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with
substantially duplicate content. Don't create pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing or
installing viruses, trojans, or other badware. Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other
"cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.
(http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769)
@irishwonder
Spam Reports The form gives a glimpse into other possible
reasons for bans and penalties (not only web spam but also other violations):
@irishwonder
How to Diagnose a Ban Site: search for an existing and previously
indexed domain in Google brings no results
@irishwonder
How to Diagnose a Ban
PageRank in the toolbar is n/a (grey bar) for a site that previously had PR – however this is NOT a 100% indicator:
@irishwonder
How to Diagnose a Ban
Site not appearing anywhere in Google for an exact match search for a fragment of content off it:
@irishwonder
How to Diagnose a Ban If a site is verified at Google Webmaster Tools,
there may be a message for the site owner there
@irishwonder
Reasons for a Ban Copyright infringement (DMCA filed against a
site) Paid links Hidden text / links Spam reports
But iAcquire case is neither! (=purely “political” action by Google)
@irishwonder
Ban Facts You can get banned if you have links from
banned sites (=patterns for Google to follow) You can get a banned site when buying an
aged (previously owned) domain You can “ban” yourself by having a noindex
rule in robots.txt or in meta robots A competitor can get your site banned, too
(despite Google saying otherwise)
@irishwonder
What to Do If a Site Got Banned Fix the factors that could cause the ban if
possible Get some strong authority links File a reinclusion request? (only helps with
manual bans/penalties) If nothing helps, move on to a new domain
and start from scratch
@irishwonder
Penalty Penalty ≠ ban Ban = site disappears from Google completely,
penalty = site drops for all its keywords for approximately the same number of positions (e.g. “-50” penalty)
However there are page-level penalties too A penalized site does not rank #1 for its domain
name (but still can be found lower down the SERPs) From the commercial point of view, there is not
much difference – you lose traffic Penalty is temporary and lasts from 90 days to a
year
@irishwonder
Reasons for a Penalty Duplicate content (on your own domain or
elsewhere) Paid links “Thin content” type of site (Panda)
@irishwonder
How to Fight a Penalty Analyze the site Remove possible reasons of the penalty Keep building links Improve the site
@irishwonder
What Is a Filter
@irishwonder
Penalty=site punished for certain factors, filter=certain factors are discounted
Penguin: spammy links no longer taken into account by the algorithm
Sandbox?
@irishwonder
Panda Update Targets thin content sites, heavy ads, poor
user experience Affects less popular pages on a site If a drop happened not on the date of one of
Panda updates it is NOT due to Panda Removing affected pages and moving to a
new domain/subdomain has been identified as an effective way of getting out of Panda-imposed penalty
@irishwonder
Panda Dates
@irishwonder
(Source: http://www.seroundtable.com/google-panda-37-15227.html)
Panda 3.7 - ? Panda 3.6 on April 27th Panda 3.5 on April 19th Panda 3.4 on March 23rd Panda 3.3 on about February
26th Panda 3.2 on about January
15th Panda 3.1 on November 18th Panda 2.5.3 on October
19/20th
Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th Panda 2.5 on September 28th Panda 2.4 in August Panda 2.3 on around July
22nd. Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so. Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so. Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so. Panda 1.0 on February 24th
Penguin Update
@irishwonder
Targets “unnatural” link profiles Targets over-optimized anchor texts Benefits sites with strong brand signal and
social signal If a drop happened NOT on a date of Penguin
update this is not due to Penguin
Penguin Dates
@irishwonder
Penguin 1.0 — April 24, 2012 Penguin 1.1 — May 25, 2012
(Source: http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change)
Staying Out of Filter/Penalty/Ban Make sure the user experience is great Do not create unnecessary pages Avoid duplicate content Do not buy links (or if you do, be careful and
avoid footprints) Do not overdo ads on the site Improve the site’s trustworthiness Add social interaction If possible, create a brand signal
@irishwonder