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!!!

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USA.com Case

(See the complete story at http://www.seroundtable.com/google-drops-usadotcom-13651.html)

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USA.com Case: Fast Forward 7 Months

“About 3,470,000 results” – sites are not delisted forever

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USA.com Case: Fast Forward 11 Months (Post-Panda and Penguin)

“About 1,400,000 results” – however things can change both ways over time

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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

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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

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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)

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Spam Reports The form gives a glimpse into other possible

reasons for bans and penalties (not only web spam but also other violations):

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How to Diagnose a Ban Site: search for an existing and previously

indexed domain in Google brings no results

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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:

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How to Diagnose a Ban

Site not appearing anywhere in Google for an exact match search for a fragment of content off it:

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How to Diagnose a Ban If a site is verified at Google Webmaster Tools,

there may be a message for the site owner there

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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)

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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)

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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

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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

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Reasons for a Penalty Duplicate content (on your own domain or

elsewhere) Paid links “Thin content” type of site (Panda)

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How to Fight a Penalty Analyze the site Remove possible reasons of the penalty Keep building links Improve the site

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What Is a Filter

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Penalty=site punished for certain factors, filter=certain factors are discounted

Penguin: spammy links no longer taken into account by the algorithm

Sandbox?

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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

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Panda Dates

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(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

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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

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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

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Questions?

Twitter: @irishwonder http://www.irishwonder.com info@irishwonder.com