Google Manual Action Penalties
Biundo took the podium next to talk about on-site manual penalty
actions by Google. Manual actions can be applied to the site as a whole
or a limited portion of the site.
The most common triggers for manual actions include cloaking and
sneaky redirects. Most people know if they've done this, but sometimes
they don't if, for example, they've inherited a site. You can go into
Google Webmaster Tools, Fetch as Googlebot, and examine the code to find
out.
Hidden text and keyword stuffing are other reasons for manual
penalties. Again Biundo said that most people know what they have done
here. The key is to just get rid of it, then go back to Google to tell
them you've fixed it.
Thin content is another reason for manual actions. These are cases
where there's no "value add" in the content. Things like auto-generated
content, scraped content, and so on are all examples of this.
User generated spam like un-moderated comments could also trigger a
manual action. Clean up the spam and close the comment spam loophole by
doing things like putting nofollow on links to discourage it and using
CAPTCHA for comments.
The next no-no is unnatural links, such as when you buy or sell links
with the intent of trading PageRank. If you're selling links for
traffic, make sure you nofollow them.
Links: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.
One exception is some directories, Biundo said. Select directories
are OK for a site to be listed within, like Yahoo, Best of the Web, and
DMOZ. These are examples of directories where the editorial review
standard for the links are high, and therefore, OK in Google's eyes.
So when looking to be a part of directories, don't pursue a vast quantity of directories, Biundo said. Be exclusive.
Guest posting when done well and in high quality sites is a valid
technique, even though there's a lot of controversy around it. Guest
posts at sites that aren't directly related to the industry or subject
matter of your business can be a red flag to Google.
Also, when posting, don't use or overuse links back to your website within your guest post. Once is OK if it's appropriate.
Infographics are another controversial topic with Google. They've
been vastly abused, so the key is to make sure they are high quality,
factual, and offer value if you're going to use them as part of your
digital marketing strategy.
Press releases are still OK, but just don't load them up with
keyword-rich links back to the site. If you're going to embed links,
stick to branded links for your site or business name in the footer of
the press release.
There are countless ways to build manipulative links – many that have
not been touched upon in this session. Biundo said it's as simple as
knowing a bad link when you see one. Stick to Google's Golden Rule for
links, and you should be OK.
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