Reasons Why Google May Penalize Your Website

Why would Google penalize your website?

There are so many reasons why Google may penalize your website that will affect your traffic. Here are a few reasons listed.

1. Duplicate content: This happens for many eCommerce websites especially as the description and even images are picked up from the manufacturer’s site. Using tools like Copyscape which picks up copied content helps.

2. Buying links: If you are paying to place links from many websites and doing it by the 100s, then it’s a red flag for Google. Google values sites where links are gained organically. So make your content so interesting that sites would love to link back to you.

3. Check your website speed: It’s so frustrating when a website takes too long to load and no visitor wants to wait for more than a few seconds. Make sure your images are optimized, your website can be divided into subdomains, and images can load from a subdomain, compress java and CSS codes, remove unwanted plugins that eat up memory, and lastly use servers that are physically located in the country of origin, if possible. Mobile and Page Speed are very important for Google.

4. Keyword stuffing: This was followed 15 years ago but is a big no these days. There are several tools available that tell you which keywords to use and how many times you need to use them. Stick to that and don’t give in to temptation and overuse the keywords. Or else you will be in the penalized list.

5. Error pages like 404: Clean up your website and code so that there are absolutely no errors. Again there are several tools available which you must use to scan periodically and weed out those error pages. Be it 404, 302, 301, or 500. All are bad in the eyes of Google.

6. Unique Meta Tags: Write fresh meta tags for all the pages while designing the website. Many websites do this mistake. Although the content of the page may differ for each page, having the same meta title tags is a cue and red alert for google to mark your website as having duplicate content.

7. Domain History: You may not have known it, but you might have unknowingly purchased a domain and built your website on a domain that had a bad reputation earlier. So do your homework properly before you buy that domain.

So remember these SEO Sins which you must avoid to get that coveted First Page on Google Position which every website is vying for!

Listen to the Podcast: Why would Google Penalize your Website – Learn with Meg