Overcoming Google 950 Penalty

A few days ago I wrote about a site which appeared to receive a google 950 penalty

What did I do to get the penalty removed?

Well, to be honest - nothing.

But, to be fair, I can’t think what I did to get it in the first place. Here is a screen shot from StatCounter

What I would advise for Getting Rid Or Avoiding Google Penalties

• The addition of fresh, unique content
• Avoiding reciprocol link trading schemes.
• Avoid getting too many links all at once.
• If you do get alot of links make sure there is variety: different anchor text, different pages (not just home page)
• Be especially careful of linking to sites like “link farms”
• Look at ways to get new natural inbound links: Link building
• File a reinclusion request at Google

To file a reinclusion Request at Google

1. Go here Google feedback
2. Admit to some spam / dodgy SEO techniques.
3. Tell Google what you have done to remove them
4. Promise never to do it again e.t.c
5. See also: reinclusion request at Google - Matt Cutts

If www.biographyonline hadn’t had it’s penalty removed, I would have:

• Found some links to remove,
• deleted some content that was duplicated from wikipedia (only small % of site)
• I would have added a lot of fresh content.
• But, it would have been difficult to remove genuine spam, because there isn’t any.

Remember: Google may be evil, but Google is the boss.

Do what it takes to get back in Google.

What has this experience taught me?

• Don’t Rely solely on Google Traffic
• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Have a diversity of sites (unless your site is not reliant on Google traffic e.g. John Chow wasn’t too bothered by his google penalty because he has a very large RSS readership .
• There is also a saying “Any news is good news” - If google kill your site, at least try to get some publicity out of it.)
• Google can do strange things (this is being polite). However, don’t panic and despair. They can’t look foolish forever (like not ranking johnchow.com number1 for search “John Chow”
• Google is trying extra hard to stop splogs and SEO techniques. If a few sites get hit in the crossfire, Google see a bigger picture. I guess Google do things like this to scare webmaster’s and create uncertainty. When there is this uncertainty generated amongst webmasters, it makes us think twice about doing “SEO tricks”.

Related:

• How John Chow can get his ranking back at Blogstorm
• Flowchart out of google 950 penalty

• See also: google and over optimisation penalties