{"id":5894,"date":"2013-05-14T01:57:06","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T06:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/?p=5894"},"modified":"2013-05-14T01:57:06","modified_gmt":"2013-05-14T06:57:06","slug":"is-your-site-poised-for-a-search-engine-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/is-your-site-poised-for-a-search-engine-penalty\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Your Site Poised for a Search Engine Penalty?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"search<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a webmaster who\u2019s devoted hours upon hours to building up your site and its presence in the natural search results, there\u2019s almost nothing scarier than the thought of logging into your Google Analytics account and seeing the massive drop in traffic that indicates a search engine penalty.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re facing manual action by Google or if your site simply fails to meet the quality threshold imposed by an unexpected algorithm update. \u00a0What does matter is the potential loss of traffic and revenue your site faces if you don\u2019t take the necessary steps to determine whether or not your website is at risk.<\/p>\n

To minimize your site\u2019s chances of being struck with a search engine penalty, pay attention to the following three factors:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Factor #1 Is your content written for humans or computers?<\/h3>\n

In the 'good ol\u2019 days'\u009d of SEO, the search engines relied more heavily on the number of keyword repetitions present in a piece of content than on its quality when it came to determining which site to place at the top of the search results.<\/p>\n

As you might expect, website owners and early SEO strategists figured this out pretty quickly resulting in websites that were cluttered with keyword-stuffed articles, 'hidden'\u009d text displayed in the same color as the page\u2019s background and paragraphs of 'optimized'\u009d content buried in website footers.<\/p>\n

But while these strategies would have helped your site to achieve top rankings in 1996, the search engines have come a long way since these early days. \u00a0Their algorithms are now much more sophisticated and they\u2019re constantly being improved, as evidenced by 2011\u2019s Google Panda update, which specifically targeted low-value website content.<\/p>\n

So how should you proceed when it comes to content creation these days? \u00a0Simple write for both your readers and the search engines.<\/p>\n

As a website owner, your primary consideration should be developing content that your readers will find useful, as the search engines\u2019 long-term intention is to reward sites that provide the best possible value for their users (even if their algorithms aren\u2019t yet sensitive enough to achieve this 100% of the time).<\/p>\n

At the same time, though, throw the search engines a bone when it comes to determining the subject of your content by including your target keywords at least once or twice in your body content in a natural way. \u00a0Don\u2019t go overboard (10% keyword density, for example, is a dead giveaway that you\u2019re trying to game the system), but do make the purpose of your content clear to both readers and the search engines.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Factor #2 Is your site too perfectly optimized?<\/h3>\n

\"over<\/a><\/p>\n

Run a quick Google search for 'on-page SEO techniques'\u009d and you\u2019ll come up with lists of specific, easily implemented recommendations on how to make your site\u2019s content more search engine friendly.<\/p>\n

Now, don\u2019t get me wrong tips like adding your target keywords to your title tags, optimizing your body content heading tags and creating internal links between your site\u2019s pages are all valid SEO and usability recommendations.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s totally possible to get carried away with on-page optimization, resulting in a site that\u2019s weirdly uniform in its SEO value. \u00a0If you\u2019ve completed the exact same optimization steps on all of your pages, you\u2019ve essentially created a digital footprint that tells the search engines, 'I\u2019m trying to manipulate your algorithms into ranking my site better.'\u009d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no guarantee that doing too much SEO will lead to immediate action taken against your site, but it\u2019s worth noting that Matt Cutts the head of Google\u2019s Web Spam Team has been hinting about the possibility of an over-optimization penalty for years. \u00a0To keep your site safe, focus your efforts on creating highly-valuable content not on meeting some arbitrarily defined SEO standards.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Factor #3 How 'natural'\u009d is your backlink profile?<\/h3>\n

Finally, one major area that the search engines have been cracking down on recently is link spam that is, low value backlinks created for the explicit purpose of improving natural search performance.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s Penguin update of 2012 was one of the first major indications that the search giant intended to penalize sites using manipulative link schemes. \u00a0Since the update\u2019s initial rollout, a number of further Penguin modifications have been released, indicating that the elimination of any benefit generated via link spam is likely to remain a priority for the engines in the near future.<\/p>\n

As such, it\u2019s important that you take a look at the quality of the sites pointing links back at your own pages. \u00a0Start by gathering a list of your existing backlinks using the information provided by Google\u2019s Webmaster Tools program or a third-party system. \u00a0Analyze your links, paying particular attention to any created on low quality sites for the specific purpose of building SEO value.<\/p>\n

If you encounter bad backlinks in your profile, you can either attempt to remove them (using the Google Disavow Links<\/a> tool if your efforts aren\u2019t successful) or you can try to outweigh their influence by building quality links using more natural methods. \u00a0Whichever option you choose, make the regular monitoring of your site\u2019s backlink profile a part of your regular SEO routine in order to avoid search engine penalties that could threaten the stability of your web-based business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re a webmaster who\u2019s devoted hours upon hours to building up your site and its presence in the natural…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-web-and-hosting-tips"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Your Site Poised for a Search Engine Penalty? - HostGator<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/is-your-site-poised-for-a-search-engine-penalty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Your Site Poised for a Search Engine Penalty?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you\u2019re a webmaster who\u2019s devoted hours upon hours to building up your site and its presence in the natural...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/is-your-site-poised-for-a-search-engine-penalty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HostGator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HostGator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-14T06:57:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/search-engine-penalties.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Taylor Hawes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@HostGator\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@HostGator\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Taylor Hawes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/is-your-site-poised-for-a-search-engine-penalty\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/is-your-site-poised-for-a-search-engine-penalty\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Taylor Hawes\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0519034239a8d6785a8238586f2f2754\"},\"headline\":\"Is Your Site Poised for a Search Engine Penalty?\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-05-14T06:57:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-05-14T06:57:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/is-your-site-poised-for-a-search-engine-penalty\/\"},\"wordCount\":901,\"commentCount\":5,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/is-your-site-poised-for-a-search-engine-penalty\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/search-engine-penalties.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Web Hosting Tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/is-your-site-poised-for-a-search-engine-penalty\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/is-your-site-poised-for-a-search-engine-penalty\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/is-your-site-poised-for-a-search-engine-penalty\/\",\"name\":\"Is Your Site Poised for a Search Engine Penalty? 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