The Google Penalty Checker is a tool to use for identifying if your site has been penalized by Google’s algorithm change. The Google Penalty Checker tools currently available online use current Google algorithms for search engine optimization to identify what might have caused your website to receive a penalty, as well as how to fix it.
Google algorithms are ever changing, and while these changes are made available online, receiving a Google penalty is often difficult to identify on your own without use of a penalty checking tool. In this article, we will explain why it is important to use the penalty checker and provide some recommendations for a few tools currently available online to check for Google penalties.
How do I optimize my website for search?
The algorithms for search engine optimization that are determined by Google are ever changing. Many of the algorithms are specific to website optimization and user experience. Below are a few recommendations for improving your search engine rankings:
- Create an XML sitemap to help Google identify your webpage content
- Continue adding new content to your website on a regular basis
- Optimize website content through internal links and use of keyword phrases that you want to rank well for
- Optimize your website’s performance and security features for a better user experience
- Fix any broken links
- Optimize your page titles and meta description tags
What is a Google penalty?
A Google penalty is essentially a punishment by Google that is placed on a website when it does not follow specific procedures in accordance with the current SEO algorithm. For example, a Google penalty might be that a website is not optimized for mobile, and therefore, that website might receive a decrease in their overall ranking status for a keyword search and for not adhering to that algorithm.
A Google penalty results in blocking of a specific website that goes against these guidelines determined by Google’s algorithms. Depending on how long the penalty lasts, this can result in a major decline in overall website traffic, making it difficult for a business to improve their lead generation.
These penalties sometimes can last 30 days, and possibly even lead to an overall ban on Google. The penalties will usually result in the following:
- Decrease in search rankings
- Drop in overall page scores
- Decreases in website traffic
- Difficulty in improving online positioning from creation of new website content
So basically, even though your efforts to improve your lead generation are strong, a Google penalty may be negating all of your hard work to develop new content and develop a better experience for your visitors.
How do I know if I have received a Google penalty?
Unfortunately, Google does not alert the website administrator if a penalty has been placed on their website. The only way you might be able to sense a penalty is if your overall traffic rankings have decreased significantly or by using a Google penalty checking tool.
A few causes of Google penalties:
- Content issues – Your website may have either thin or duplicate content. Thin content is described as content that provides no value to the user. A possible solution to these issues would be to merge pages with duplicate content as well as remove any pages with low views.
- Spam links – Some internal links might be identified by Google as spam. Spam links can often be bought, and create issues when determining rankings for a website as they may have no relevance to content associated with them. An example of a spam link is a comment on a website’s blog with a link to check out another webpage. To avoid penalties for this issue, it is important to ensure all spam links are removed regularly.
- Broken links and improper redirects – Broken links or bad page redirects can also cause Google penalties. It is important to have your website regularly reviewed to identify these to have them removed.
5 Google Penalty Checking Tools
1. Fruition Google Penalty Checker
Fruition offers a free online tool that allows website administrators to check for any Google penalties that may have a significant impact on their overall website traffic. Setting up a Fruition account takes just a few minutes with the free basic plan. The tool offers a number of different features to help improve your search engine optimization including:
- Algorithm impact – This feature alerts you on any recent changes in Google’s algorithm which may have impacted your website’s traffic
- Update impact graphs – Any data regarding penalties or algorithm changes that may have significantly increased or decreased your overall website traffic are provided in any easy to understand graph through this tool
- Recommendations – Suggestions for which areas to focus on in order to improve your website’s SEO health
The SEMrush sensor provides website administrators updates on their current search results. The tool provides data over a period of time to help identify any major decreases in traffic that may have been caused by a Google penalty. The nice feature of this tool is that it will monitor your SEO status on a daily basis, and the charts will help provide some immediate insight on any abnormal activity, helping to indicate whether or not your website may have received a penalty.
3. Accuranker Google Grump Ranking tool
This online tool is used to monitor Google’s algorithms themselves to determine major fluctuations that can lead to changes in your website’s rankings. The tool allows you to filter Google algorithm changes daily by location and type of device used. By using this tool in combination with Google analytics, you can determine whether your changes in website traffic were due to an algorithm change or possibly a Google penalty.
4. Moz Google Algorithm Change History
Moz offers a tool that tracks all Google algorithm updates, and sorts these changes by date. By using Moz to track any new algorithm changes, you can use your current Google analytics data to pinpoint changes in website traffic and whether or not they may have been due to an algorithm update or a possible Google penalty.
By using some of the tools mentioned above, you will be able to monitor your website’s current SEO activity and traffic rankings, as well as pinpoint specific timeframes of any changes in Google’s algorithm that may have impacted your search engine rankings. If you find that your traffic has decreased significantly yet there was no change in Google’s algorithm, you may realize that your traffic changes can be attributed to a Google penalty.
Need assistance with Google Analytics and improving your search rankings?
Alliance Interactive is a full service digital agency offering search engine optimization and Google Analytics account management services. We can help develop a new search engine strategy to help increase your website’s traffic, as well as monitor your Google Analytics account to ensure you are on track for improvements in your lead generation efforts.
To get started with us, just give us a call at 888-222-9056 or contact us online today!