7 Ways How to Recover From Google Penalty? Tips for Recovery

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If you suspect that a Google penalty has hit your site, there’s a lot you can do. This could be a huge problem for you and your online activities, but quick and constructive action can soon get you back o track.

The key here is not to panic. You need the proper tools and the right way of thinking. Below are a few ways to get out of this mess and keep out of the Google penalty box:

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How to Recover From Google Penalty?

1. Screaming Frog Web Crawler

Before you start penalty recovery, you need to completely assess your whole site. Sour every page and word to find out what the offending element was. The Screaming Frig Web Crawler does this for you by locating thin content, dead ends, dead links, internal redirects, duplicate content, etc.

This sort of program is known as a ‘spider’ program. It is essential that you run it through your site so that you would have a solid case and know what you’re dealing with.

Screaming Frog Web Crawler is a very handy tool, as it can minutely check even very large sites. Your naked eye can only locate so much in a limited period of time. This is why the program is so highly favored by SEO experts.

2. Copyscape

This is basically a paid program that checks any kind of content for plagiarism. Every website needs content. However, some website owner or managers may not even be aware of duplicate content on their site.

Content writers are usually paid per word, so some may try to scam their clients. They may do this by copy-pasting relevant content off the Internet. Alternatively, some writers may be sincere, but not be aware of the guidelines of plagiarisms. The duplicate content could also just be a poor rewriting job.

However, Google doesn’t really care whether the plagiarism was intentional or not. If you suspect that your penalty is due to a high plagiarism level within your content, Copyscape is the best solution. If basically crawls through your whole content and reveals if the content exists anywhere else on the internet.

While Copyscape does have both a paid and a free version, it allows you to only enter one URL at a time. This could become tedious and frustrating if you have a large website.

3. Fetch As Google

This is a Google Webmaster Tools feature. Its main function is to allow a website owner to simulate how Google works on their site. You can see here how Google crawls through your site to check it for any glaring flaws.

Alternatively, this tool gives you a URL on your site, which you can then submit to the index. You have many different options with Fetch as Google. There are several Googlebot types, which includes Desktop, Mobile, and Smartphone.

Your selected Googlebot would then give you a specific URL. This “Fetch and Render” URL would give details of the HTTP response, download speed, and how your site looks on other browsers.

The tool itself is quite a basic one, but very handy and quick for rooting out simple errors. You can find out if your URL is being redirected or just blocked through robots.txt. By also viewing your server’s response time, you can gauge if there is a problem in that area.

4. Majestic SEO

You should know about your own link profile if you are to deal with Google penalties. Majestic SEO can help with just this area. This is basically a link intelligence tool that helps you understand your link profile. Not only this, but it also helps you analyze your competitor’s profile and hence learn from it.

If your Google penalty is due to a bad backlink, Majestic can really be helpful. It can make your backlinks profile all pristine and clear of any errors. It also reports in detail on your anchor text, which is an essential feature of SEO.

In case your site is a bit over-optimized, Majestic SEO would warn you about this, along with whatever other problems there are. You get to know your trust rating in this manner. Hence, you can then work hard to raise a poor rating or to stay where you are.

5. Ahrefs

This is another useful tool suite for locating and doing away with bad links. More specially, it effectively deals with inbound link analysis. It also provided backlink reports in great detail. All of this can be very valuable information for a site owner with a Google penalty.

Furthermore, Ahrefs can let you know about the quality level of your domains. It can thus tell you about certain backlinks that may be spam, scams, or downright frauds.

Ahrefs does its excellent work through a thorough and vast index of links. This data is based on a trillion connections and more. It is also updated many times in an hour in order to give the best service to its users. If you have any problems with your anchor text, using Ahrefs is a good way to spot and fix them. (How to Recover From Google Penalty?)

6. Moz’s Google Algorithm Change History

This is more of a huge reference than a tool. With the Algorithm Change History, you can view how Google has changed its algorithms every year. The annual changes could be in the hundreds. While laymen Google users may only notice the major updates, the smaller ones are of great importance as well.

The Algorithm Change History page is a way in which site owner can gauge what went wrong with a site. It includes confirmed updates, not those that are unannounced or simply a rumor. It also does away with frustration and confusion by not including tiny changes that would not affect sites too much.

7. Monitor Backlinks

Monitor Backlinks is another way you can locate and finish off bad backlinks. The way to do this is to import your links from Google Webmaster Tools to the Monitor Backlinks program. Using this over Google Webmaster Tools gives a site owner several benefits.

One of these benefits is that you can view your ‘nofollow’ links. Google Webmaster Tools apparently ignores this aspect of your site, but you could still be penalized for it.

Once you have viewed your links, use the Monster Backlinks filters to switch to external. This would allow you to verify and check the backlinks in a manual way. While you’re at it, be sure to check your blog comments, if you have one. A lot of bad links could make your site a target through such means. (How to Recover From Google Penalty?)

Wrap-Up

When you’re hit with a Google penalty, there may not be much you can do to fight it. However, removing the offending material is one way of getting your website back on its feet. Visit the Google penalty box first, and see if Google Webmaster Tools has notified you of any penalties.

Additionally, you should consider using the tools above on an everyday basis. This would serve to keep you site clean and free from poor and copied content. In order to get good content and hence a safe site, invest in good writers and content creators. The salary or rates you pay them would be well worth your while as it would preserve your peace of mind.

Tech Desk

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