Google penalty, Google penalty recovery

Hi Guys,

I am really confused, I have gone through the Google Guidelines and I cant find anything wrong with my site. I have submitted reconsideration requests but I still have a Google penalty. I admit, my site was borderline with keywords, but I have removed lots of keywords that may look like keyword stuffing. I also had an old account with LinkMarket, but this has since been canceled.

I have a shopping site www.icoste.com and received a penalty around 2 months ago. Now I understand that my site is an affiliate site, however I also offer product ratings, merchant ratings, reviews and comparisons so I wouldn’t say that it was a thin affiliate site.

I don’t know what is wrong and I have asked Google 5 times what is wrong, so that I can fix it, or even just take the site down if I am going to have a permanent penalty, but they only reply saying “we have reviewed your site and we’ll consider your request”, but I still have a penalty.

Can anyone here think of any reason why I have a penalty, and also why Google are not telling me the problem? I only want a quick message, for example: We believe your site is a thin affiliate site, or your site has been hacked, or you are keyword stuffing, etc etc.

Any ideas guys?

Thanks in advance.

Mike

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RAINBORICH

There’s no sign that your site is penalized.  It’s just that you simply aren’t ranking as well as you expect.  You’re fighting an uphill battle in many respects.  You use a great deal of boilerplate content so your pages are all very similar.  With hundreds of product categories, the thousands of individual product listing pages do not end up with enough positive ranking factors to compete with better sites.  I’d suggest that you pare down your categories, pare down the ratio of boilerplate on individual pages, and create your own unique product descriptions for the items you feature and avoid using descriptions from the manufacturer and other websites.

One of the biggest problems you face is that people don’t search for “price comparison” all that often, and the category is dominated by some major players.  So you may find it best to try to be a big fish in a small pond, where your current situation is just the opposite.  Be the best site in some selected categories and make your main page focused on those categories.  Let some internal pages handle the less important ones.  Create a program to solicit product reviews from users so that you’ll have more unique and compelling content.  Good luck!

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CHIPFAT

googling the text on your homepage shows that it isn’t unique

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&as_q=&as_epq=is+a+large+shopping+%26+price+comparison+site+that+helps+UK+consumers+compare+prices+on+millions+of+products.+Consumers+can+rate%2C+review+and+compare+prices+from+over+700+online+shops+all+from+one+site.+We+give+you+ratings+on+products+as+well+as+merchants+to+help+you+choose+where+to+buy+and+to+buy+the+cheapest+products.&as_oq=&as_eq=&num=10&lr=&as_filetype=&ft=i&as_sitesearch=&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images

your sites probably not penalized but is probably stuck in a duplicate content hole (not penalty) i.e. most of your pages will be in ‘omitted results’

for example

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22Sunpatiens+are+a+new+breed+of+Busy+Lizzie+that+will+flourish+despite+dry+weather.+Fast+growing,+they+will+brighten+up+your+hanging+baskets,+patio+pots+and+troughs+with+an+abundance+of+large+glorious+blooms.%22&hl=en&lr=&filter=0

one of the problems when using affiliate xml/json/csv feeds is there’s 99999999999 million other sites using the same feeds with the same descriptions

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MIKE

Hi Guys,

Thanks very much for the replies, much appreciated. I understand where both of you are coming from….however….the site was performing really well, and then I got a drop in traffic (from 10k a day to around 2k a day), which may have been a penalty or may be some other factor, but then…i submitted a re-inclusion request because I thought it may have been a penalty and I got a reply back from Google advising that they have reviewed the site, within an hour of receiving that message from Google, my traffic went from 2k a day to 50 a day.

It is almost definitely a penalty, and a manual one at that! Now I dont know if the first drop in traffic was a penalty but this one definitely is. And Google will not tell me the problem. Now although there are many other price comparison sites out there, and a few better than mine like pricerunner etc, I still think I have credibility in the market, so I don’t think I deserve such a punishment. From looking at search terms such as “icoste compare” i am no-where near the top, where as i was number 1 before. I still rank number 1 for “icoste” and “icoste shopping” so im confused as to what my penalty actually is, but it definitely is one.

The only thing I can think of it that Google is trying to get rid of price comparison and affiliate sites in their index, so they are not removing my penalty. I can see the logic in some degree, however such a major penalty as this one is certainly not deserved.

Any other ideas about what is causing this penalty? I am worried that my site is blatantly going against the guidelines and I am just missing it. But I have checked it and checked it and I cant find anything wrong!

Hopefully someone can spot a problem.

Thanks Guys.

Mike

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=7c0261b9a7416aa1&hl=en

There is not a week that goes by that I do not come across someone posting on a forum stating that they have been penalized or even banned by Google, Yahoo or another search engine. Most claims do not have much merit. The individual just assumes they have been penalized because their site is not ranking well for search terms they think it should or they don’t know how to check if their site is indexed in a search engine. Even seeing a grayed out PageRank meter in the Google toolbar can lead people to assume the unthinkable - “I’ve been banned!” However there are times when a web site has indeed come under some kind of penalty or has been completely removed from a search index for one reason or another. In this article we will look at ways to avoid such penalties as well as ways to redeem yourself if you have experienced this misfortune.

Before we take a look at some of the things that can get a site penalized, I want to make the following statement: “Do not depend solely upon the search engines for your survival.” While search engines can be a great source of traffic, you cannot rely on them alone. They can be unpredictable beasts and you have no control over them. One month you could be generating great traffic to your site via the organic search results. Then the search engine changes the algorithm and your site drops out of sight. So does your traffic and you find yourself hurting in the worst possible way. Many web site owners experienced this when Google made a major change to their algorithm back in November 2003, an update often referred to as “The Florida Update” due to the catastrophic effect it had on a very large number of websites. Some folks actually went belly up because of this.

Therefore seek other ways to attract potential customers whether that be through pay per click and sponsorship advertising on the Internet or traditional means of advertising such as print, radio, television and word of mouth. As the old adage goes, “Don’t throw all your eggs in one basket.”

A Look At Search Engine Penalties

Let’s talk about search engine penalties. What are they? Google, Yahoo and MSN have compiled their own lists of “do’s and don’ts” and I am sure other search engines have their own as well. However these merely serve as guidelines and may not include everything that can initiate a penalty from a search engine. Here are some of the most common things that can generate a search engine penalty:

• Cloaking (or Code Swapping) - the process of submitting one thing to a search engine and then displaying something else to the end user. Sometimes a web page is optimized for a particular search engine or phrase, and then the page or code is swapped when an end user clicks on a search listing. This is done to either prevent others from imitating the success of the page or simply to hide an ugly text-only type of a page for one that is more stylish.
• Doorway Pages - web pages that solely exist for the purpose of ranking well in the search engine results pages (SERPs). They are typically not part of the navigational structure of the web site and can only be found if someone happens upon them from a search query.
• Keyword Stuffing - involves the repeated use of a word or phrase in an attempt to increase a page’s relevancy.
• Invisible Text - a technique where webmasters will insert text, which is usually repetitive use of keywords, somewhere on a page (usually at the bottom) and make the color of the text the same as the background of the page or the background of a table or cell so as not to be seen by the average Internet user.
• Tiny Text - a method of hiding and stuffing words by setting them at a small font size such as 1pt or 2pt for example.
• Page Spoofing / Meta Refresh / Redirection -  a technique where a page is developed for a particular keyword phrase and then some form of redirection is used so users cannot see the content of the page, typically a bunch of senseless text. Anyone clicking through to this page from its listing in a search engine will be automatically taken to a different page. Often, the “final” page people reach has little content relating to the keyword phrase.
• Meta Tag Stuffing - where webmasters place high traffic keywords in meta tags that are completely unrelated to a web page in order to generate more traffic.
• Page Stuffing / Duplicate Pages - where the same web page will be duplicated or slightly modified and then these variations are all submitted to a search engine. They assume that if the page is successful for a particular keyword phrase, then all of its variations can dominate a search engines top listings.
• Domain Spamming / Mirror Sites - involves having the same exact web site at different domains. While there are some legitimate reasons to have “mirror” sites, operating such sites simply to increase search engine traffic is generally considered spamming.

While these are some of the most common reasons why people find themselves suffering under a search engine penalty, there are others. Let’s look at a few of them.

Hidden Links

This is typically done by using a small 1×1 transparent gif image and then hyperlinking it somewhere. I have experienced this penalty myself and learned a hard lesson by it. True confession ahead - back in the days when Google along with their PageRank method of ranking pages began to gain popularity and before they really came out against hidden links as well as other so-called “spam” techniques, we would link back to our site using hidden links on just about every web page we touched across a variety of domains. Why? To build up link popularity of course.

Then Google began to take a more active role in combating spam, particularly the type of spam that attempted to game their PageRank algorithm. What happened to us? We were banned from Google. At the time I didn’t care much because 1.) Google wasn’t the most popular engine at the time (seems a lifetime ago) and 2.) we did not depend solely upon search engines for business (as I recommend above).

But eventually as Google gained popularity, I became concerned. We needed the traffic Google could send us. What were we to do? We actually had to go and remove all those links (what a task that was), confess our fault to Google and beg for forgiveness. We were forgiven and eventually let back in the index but the whole process took about a year. One thing gained out of that experience is that we learned how to help others get back into Google’s and other search indices once they have been penalized or banned. We also learned of course never to do that again!

Linking To Other Sites That Are Under Penalty

I have seen this happen more with Yahoo than Google. A past client of ours linked their site to a series of other sites that Yahoo had already banned. In turn they also got banned - kicked right out of the index. All these sites were linking to one another in some sort of link farm strategy. We advised the client to remove the links which they did. After this, the penalty was lifted.

Let me clarify this issue of linking to bad sites. You will never come under a penalty if a bad site links to you. Search engines understand that you do not have any control over someone else linking to you. However when you link to what a search engine considers a “bad” site, that you do have control over and while it will not always generate a penalty, it can if it is abused as was the case in the above example.

Generating Pages For the Sole Purpose of AdSense

In case you do not know, AdSense is a program Google developed for web site owners to allow Google AdWords to appear on their sites and earn a percentage of the revenue. AdSense has taken many quality and informative sites that were formerly un-profitable and made them profitable. It earns Google profit as well because they have a greater number of outlets to display their ads.

The problem with this however is that some people are abusing the privilege of being an AdSense publisher in that they are generating hundreds and sometimes even thousands of useless web pages whose sole purpose is to display AdWords in hope they will generate revenue.

Yahoo has begun to penalize or even ban sites that practice this. I have seen this occur on more than one occasion now. In fact, the client I mentioned in the example above was doing this which is part of the reason why they were penalized. Once the pages were remove, so was the penalty.

Additional Penalty Trippers

Are there other things you can do to get in trouble with a search engine? Absolutely! We have really only covered the most common ways as well as some of my own experiences. The basic rule of thumb is to build and maintain your site with your users in mind. Create the best experience for them and display your products, services or information in the best manner that will convert visitors into paying customers. All of the methods described above are intended for search engines only - not end users.

Does that mean I cannot optimize my web site? Certainly not, but a web site can be aggressively marketing via site optimization, link building, usability, etc. without resorting to the tactics mentioned above. While some of the techniques mentioned above may work for a season, there is always that chance that you will get caught and suffer because of it. You have to then ask yourself, “Is it worth the risk?” Is it worth losing valuable search engine traffic? Is it worth destroying your brand? Is it worth the time and effort it will take to reverse the penalty? In all cases I say, “No, no, no!”

How To Get Our From Under a Search Engine Penalty

What do you do if you have been penalized or even banned? There are two things you can do. One is to get a new domain and start all over but without employing the same tactics that got you penalized in the first place. That is one way but certainly not the best in my opinion because often times people have built a brand name or put extensive time into developing and marketing their sites.

First of all find out what you did to earn the penalty. Most people already know this but other times a web site owner may be using an SEO/SEM to optimize or market their sites and as such may not understand what has been done to earn them a penalty. Unfortunately thousands of customers of a large search engine optimization company called Traffic Power were affected by a Goggle search engine penalty last year. Most were completely unaware of why they had been banned from Google’s index. If you are unsure as to whether the company you hired to market your site has done something amiss, confront them directly as to what they might have done or get a second opinion from another SEM company.

Once you discover the tactic or tactics that were used, you need to remove them. If it is tons of useless doorway pages then you must delete them. If you are hiding text then it must be removed. Linking to bad sites? Get rid of the links. Whatever the violation, it has to be remedied. It is only then that you will have the opportunity the come out from under the penalty. Sometimes this can happen automatically because the penalty was simply a spam filter the engine had built into in their algorithm. Other times you have to contact the engine, admit what you did, detail the steps you have taken to reverse the violation and ask for forgiveness. After all that is done, you wait patiently. It could take as little as a month or as in my own personal experience, a full year.

Who do you contact? Contact Google help@google.com, Yahoo at reportsearchspam@yahoo-inc.com and MSN at msnbot@microsoft.com.

If you find that you have been victim of a search engine penalty, it is not the end of the world. It is possible to come out from under such a penalty. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the normal practice of search engines to penalize or ban sites but at the same time their goal is to present the most relevant search results to their users. Sometimes that means removing sites that try to “game” the system.

Discuss this article in the Small Business Ideas forum.

searchengineguide.com

Yesterday, through a large increase in visitor numbers to my website, I discovered that my Google penalty has been lifted. In this article, I’m going to tell you why I was penalised by Google, what I did to have the penalty removed, and how you can avoid a similar penalty for your website / blog.

Last month, I asked for advice regarding a huge drop in my Googlesearch rankings. For around six months prior to the drop, I ranked at #1 when searching for my name, David Airey. The penalty imposed on my website dropped this position from #1 to around #70 and I also lost rankings for a host of graphic design-related terms, making me a lot less findable.

What you thought had happened to my website

There was A LOT of differing opinion on this, found via:

• Comments here on my blog from last month
• A tale of Paid Link pain and woe on Sphinn.com
• Web Desinger Needs “Help” thread on the ihelpyou forum
• Google Punished My Site For Selling Links – Not! by Jim Boykin

I received advice from a number of people in the SEO trade, people likeDanny, Doug and many others in the ‘ihelpyou’ forum I mentioned above.

David Hopkins, of Mutiny Web Design, kindly referred my Google penalty issue to Hamlet Batista, a seasoned search engine marketer. Hamlet wrote a great blog post about my predicament, and offered some stellar advice through our conversation in his blog post comments.

One of Hamlet’s comments, in particular, involved ‘diffusing a Google-bomb’, which I’ll come to shortly.

Why I actually got penalised by Google

First, however, and according to Matt Cutts himself (head of the Google spam team), my Google penalty was imposed for two main reasons:

1. Having paid links to bad neighbourhoods
2. Trying to game my search engine rankings with black hat SEO

On Matt’s blog, he took some time out of his no doubt hectic schedule, to make this comment about my situation:

…so the paid links for business card printing and ink cartridge refills are gone and won’t be coming back? The other thing I noticed is that it looks like you silently changed the terms of your contest and didn’t mention that to anyone.

I believe your original linking terms said:

“You can describe the draw any way you like, as long as you link to my homepage (www.davidairey.com) using logo / graphic design-related anchor text. A few examples of what you could link back with include: logo designer, best logos, Edinburgh graphic designer, graphic design in Scotland, great logos etc.”

What’s interesting about those two paid links that Matt mentions, is that the one for business card printing was automatically placed in my sidebar, after I signed up for Text Link Ads (TLA). When you sign up for TLA’s service, you install a plugin on your blog, and your site details are placed in the TLA marketplace. If someone wants to add a link to your blog, they pay TLA, you get 50% of the money, and the link to the customer’s site is placed on yours automatically. As far as I can remember, there’s no screening process.

The TLA website, whilst having a Google Page Rank of 7/10, doesn’t appear anywhere relevant when conducting a search via Google, so they seem to have a similar penalty imposed on them.

What’s also interesting, is that I had removed the TLA plugin, and stopped using their service, at the beginning of September. My Google penalty was imposed around September 18th, so it’s fair to say that I was doing a few things wrong.

The other paid link that was mentioned, for ink cartridge refills, was a private advertiser, so there’s more personal blame with this one, and I could’ve checked to see how ’safe’ their website neighbourhood was by using the Bad Neighborhood – Link Exchange Tool. I don’t know all that much about this tool, but from what I’ve read, it can help protect you if you’re unsure who you’re linking to. For instance, if you think that Google might look upon a website in a bad way i.e. it’s in a ‘bad neighbourhood’, then best to use the rel=”nofollow” code in your hyperlink, so search engines don’t count your link as a ‘vote’ (thumbs up). I’ve added the rel=”nofollow” tag to my link to the Bad Neighborhood tool, because oddly enough, after running that site through it’s own tool, there are some questionable ‘blog spam’ links shown.

If you have any info about the usefulness of the Bad Neighborhood tool, I’d love to know. Don Lawson at Affiliate Watcher asks some interesting questions about linking to bad neighbourhoods.

You can read more about what Matt Cutts has to say on paid links here. The blog post is a couple of years old, yet I believe it’s still relevant. For a more up-to-date point of view, Chris G recently asked, “Where do you stand on the paid links issue?” which makes for an interesting read.

The second point that Matt mentions, is the conditions I initially stated when running last month’s graphic design prize draw.

I asked entrants to link to my website using specific anchor text, in effect, I tried to ‘game’ my Google search engine ranking positions (SERPs). This is known as ‘black hat SEO’, which, according toAbout.com, is “customarily defined as techniques that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner.”

Ethics are very important to me, and I’ll not be conducting any similar techniques in future. A certain John Chow is well known for hiscontinued Google penalty for black hat SEO.

Actions taken before my penalty was reversed

The first thing I did was to remove the paid links. Paid links aren’t against Google’s terms of service, but paid links without the rel=”nofollow” attribute are, and I didn’t use that tag. What’s even worse is when you accept payment for a link to a website in a ‘bad neighbourhood’.

Next, and on the advice of Hamlet Batista, I emailed all 250 people who published blog posts linking to my graphic design prize draw, asking them to remove any links to my site. I wanted to “diffuse the Google bomb”, as Hamlet put it. Thankfully, and within two days of my email, I received many replies from the prize draw entrants, telling me they’d removed the links. If you were one of those people, thanks so much for helping out, especially those of you who didn’t win anything in my draw.

After sending the link removal request, I filed a reinclusion requestthrough Google’s webmaster tools. Filing this request doesn’t guarantee anything, and you might not hear anything back about your particular situation, but it’s an important part of the process. I provided as much information in the reinclusion request as possible, mentioning that I knew I did wrong with my black hat ‘Google-bomb’ tactic, that I’d contacted all prize draw entrants asking them to remove links, and that I’d also removed any paid links from my website.

For courtesy, I left a comment on Matt Cutts’ blog, informing him of my misdoings, my bulk email to recipients, and my reinclusion request. Very kindly, Matt responded to my comment, saying he’d have someone look into my reinclusion request. I can’t be sure if my request would’ve been granted, had Matt not stepped in, and so I’m really counting my blessings. Thanks again for your time, Matt.

3 steps to avoid a Google penalty

• Don’t participate in any form of black hat SEO
• Add the rel=”nofollow” tag to any paid links on your website
• Be careful not to link to bad neighbourhoods

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I’m not very clued in on SEO. These past few weeks, however, have taught me a lot about best-practice techniques.

If there’s anything written here that I’m off the mark with, I’d greatly appreciate your comments below. It’s a steep learning curve for me, but one that I’ve only just begun climbing.

A big thank you to everyone who has offered their thoughts and advice.

http://www.davidairey.com/how-i-reversed-my-google-ranking-penalty/

Bob Sakayama, SEO, has successfully unwound the Google penalty for his clients. Clean your site of unsanctioned seo strategies, and build legitimate structural strength for your site’s search goals. Then get back in there and reclaim your ranks.

What Exactly Triggers A Google Penalty?

If you’re trying to avoid a Google penalty, read this is from Google’s site guidelines:

• Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
• Don’t employ cloaking or sneaky redirects.
• Don’t send automated queries to Google.
• Don’t load pages with irrelevant words.
• Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
• Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines, or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

There are other ways to achieve a Google penalty, like buying and inter-linking too many domains, listing your keywords repeatedly, linking to a bad neighborhood, accidentally exposing (through links) parts of your site that should not be live, etc.

In general, anything hidden from the human visitor but visible to the robots is asking for a Google penalty. So don’t put colored text or links on backgrounds of the same color - Google penalty. Same for teeny tiny font sizes, especially if they carry links - Google penalty. And offpage content that only a robot sees - Google penalty.

If you’re creating content for humans, it is very unlikely that you will trigger a Google penalty. But if you’re making an effort to fool the robots, you’re messing with the potential for a Google penalty, big time. Read more about researching the causes of getting penalized in Google.

Can Too Much SEO Trigger A Google Penalty?

By definition, SEO is an optimization process, and as such should not trigger a Google penalty. But be warned that some practitioners of SEO use unsanctioned techniques that could actually harm the ranks of their sites, and make them vulnerable to a severe (and deserved) Google penalty. I advise clients to implement only “white hat” techniques that are both transparent and compliant with Google’s published guidelines.

Google’s use of automation has not yet evolved to the point where it can recognize many forms of spam. The Googlebot does not recognize most instances of cloaking, redirects, and cannot identify misapplied CSS. If a nonsanctioned technique is delivering high ranks through deceptive practices, those ranks are clearly subject to a Google penalty of exclusion. Yet the desire for high ranks often trumps good sense, and site owners are willing to risk a Google penalty because they know that they could not possibly achieve those high ranks using sanctioned methods. But taking these kinds of risk is not part of genuine SEO. Techniques that “trick” the Googlebot will only last until technology catches up. And when it does - Google penalty.

There are times that overzealous SEOs can do things that may trigger a Google penalty inadvertantly. Making multiple lists of keyword sets, links, or creating content with outrageous keyword densities are some ways to incur a Google penalty while intending to play within the rules. But if you create a site intended for human visitors, with pages/links/content that you would have no problem showing your competitors, and that reads like normal English, you’re very unlikely to trigger a Google penalty. Ethical SEO involves guiding site owners to high ranks through structural strength, relevant navigation and real content, not spamming or trickery.

How Can I Tell If I’ve Incurred A Google Penalty?

Just because you lose rank does not mean you have a Google penalty. Your ranking for keyword sets depends on many factors, including how many others are competing for the same keyword sets, how much content exists for that keyword set, and off site links. Also, the search engines are constantly updating the algorithms that determine rank, and as these change, ranks do as well. I’ve observed sites, and pages from sites that temporarily disappear from the index, but return later for no obvious reason, so don’t be too quick to blame a Google penalty when your ranks are swirling.

But you can definitely tell if your site is still in Google’s index. Simply search for the url (”mysite.com”). If there is no information returned, the url is not indexed. You can also see all pages that have been indexed by searching for “site:mysite.com” If you were ranking before, but show nothing for this search, you have a Google penalty. If you have many pages on your site, but you only see the homepage in the result, something’s very wrong, and you may have incurred a Google penalty.

It is also possible for Google to impose a manual suppression of your site that is impossible to detect, a kind of lower level Google penalty. I recently unwound such a penalty for a client who had been told by Google that there was no penalty imposed, that his poor ranks were a result of his lack of content. The tipoff to the suppression was that all the other search engines showed high positions for the same keywords, and the company’s trade name was not in the #1 rank, but on page 4.

My Site Has A Google Penalty. What Can I Do?

The very first thing you need to do is determine the exact cause of the Google penalty. This is often not obvious. But if you know you have violated one of Google’s published guidelines, that is where you should start. Unwinding a Google penalty means removing the offensive content, links, or strategy, and then informing Google that your site has achieved compliance with their guidelines. A Google penalty will not go away by itself, and a strongly proactive approach is required to both uncover the offensive material, and be certain it is completely addressed before approaching Google.

I strongly recommend NOT contacting Google immediately upon discovery of a Google penalty. You really want to be certain that after expending time and energy arguing your case, that the Google penalty will not be reimposed later because of an oversight on your part. Make sure your site is completely Google compliant before contacting them. A demonstration that you understand why the Google penalty was imposed is instrumental to unwinding it.

Here’s where to go when you’re ready:http://www.google.com/support/bin/request.py (Update 9 November 2007: This is now handled from the Webmaster Tools area. You need to sign up for an account and then have your site verified to use the tool. The problem is that in order to make the reconsideration request, you have to admit fault and acknowledge the site was non compliant with Google’s guidelines. If you want to contest an innocent site erroneously penalized, you can try the contact form at the old link, but there is no real forum for reporting victomization.)

If you are uncertain as to the cause, you should seek help. I do not recommend that you contact Google until you can approach them with knowledge. Their contact form will generate an automated reply (if any), and they do not provide a service to diagnose the cause of a Google penalty. Unwinding a Google penalty usually requires an acknowledgement of the problem by the site owner, a clean site, and a statement of compliance with Google’s guidelines. More than one attempt will probably be required to undo a sitewide Google penalty. Even in cases where the Google penalty involves only a limited number of pages from a site, be prepared to commit significant time and energy to setting things straight.

For help in unwinding a Google penalty, email me with “Google penalty” on the subject line.bob@growler.com

Is There Any Recourse Once A Google Penalty Is Imposed?

The consequences of rank loss can be enormous for a web enterprise. If you want to be indexed by Google, you have to play by their rules. They are in some sense all powerful because we rely on their service to drive visitors to our sites, yet we have no say in how their judgments are carried out. There are countless legal issues awaiting precedent, and many businesses have been hurt in ways that suggest legal action is appropriate. But for now, your recourse as a victim of the Google penalty is probably determined more by factors beyond this discussion. If you feel a Google penalty was wrongfully imposed on your site, and created great harm, you join a large number of site owners, many innocent victims. Please write me about your story - I answer all emails that have “Google penalty” on the subject line.

Bob Sakayama, SEO
bob@growler.com

1. Does your site has substantial duplicate content across pages within and outside of your domain?

It is possible you have more than one indexed version of your home page. To spot this, take a sample phrase (one sentence is enough) and copy and paste it into a Yahoo or Google search box. Put quotation marks around it to emphasize that you are making an exact query. Example : “This is my first experience with site building and I hope my instructor gives me a good grade”

It is possible that you have more than one result for this. If you do, it means that you have a duplicate content issue. You should consider blocking those duplicates or 301 redirecting them to your canonical home page. You can, however, check the percentage of similarity for those pages with respect to your home page by using this tool:http://www.webconfs.com/similar-page-checker.php

The result should also tell you whether there are exact duplicates of your pages outside the domain. Take note of this; you can also double check withhttp://www.copyscape.com/

Warning:Do not fall into the trap of assuming that duplicate content will cause a penalty. It simply means that the search engines will filter your pages, which otherwise should rank higher than those duplicates. If any substantial duplicates are found, shut them down or link them to all of your canonical pages. This will sort out this issue.

1. What is the quality of your outbound and inbound links?

Be completely honest. Have you been buying links and placing those links on the footer section of highly unrelated domains, or on spammy link pool pages? This is the time for you to forcefully ask them to entirely remove those links and submit a Google reconsideration request.

Now, does your site link out to completely unrelated domains that provide no value to your visitors? Please remove all of those links, and then check all of the external links on your domain one by one. Unchecked external domains are a sign of carelessness, and one of the main reasons a site does not perform well in search results. This is especially true if you have link pages, directories within your domain, and/or forums that pass link juice. You can use Xenu sleuth, located athttp://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.htmlto entirely scan your domain for external links. During the setup, please uncheck “Check external links,” then filter all external links into a spreadsheet.

Make sure all external links are pointing to highly authoritative and relevant sites that are trusted by Google. When looking at each link, ask yourself this question: “Does it help my visitors?” If not, then remove it.

Put rel=nofollow tags on to forum links, blog comments, and everything that does not need to be associated with your site.

What if you have gone through this check list, and everything seems fine? Then you are not being penalized; you are just losing out to your competitors. Consider doing some ethical SEO work on your site. You can learn more about SEO for free in the SEO Chat forums:http://forums.seochat.com/

Source : SEOCHAT.com