{"id":138017,"date":"2022-02-14T11:12:06","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T16:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/?p=138017"},"modified":"2024-03-18T07:42:45","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T12:42:45","slug":"google-penalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-penalties\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Penalties: The Newbie-Friendly Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"intro-txt\">A penalty from Google is&nbsp;every webmaster\u2019s worst nightmare. But even if you get one, all is not&nbsp;lost.<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In this post, you will learn the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"#1-what-is-google-penalty\">What a Google penalty is<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#2-how-penalties-fight-spam\">How penalties help Google fight&nbsp;spam<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#3-identify-manual-and-algorithmic-penalties\">How to identify manual and algorithmic actions<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#4-manual-actions-websites-get\">What manual actions websites can&nbsp;get<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#5-what-causes-penalties\">What causes most penalties today<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#6-analyze-backlink-profile-for-penalties\">How to analyze backlink profile for penalties<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#7-lift-penalties\">How to lift penalties<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#8-google-penalties-faq\">Google penalties FAQs<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Thankfully, we have never dealt with penalties on Ahrefs\u2019 blog, so I reached out to SEO experts who deal with Google penalties in their professional work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Marie Haynes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mariehaynes.com\/\">Marie Haynes Consulting<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Dan Taylor from <a href=\"https:\/\/salt.agency\/\">SALT.agency<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Olga Zarzeczna from <a href=\"https:\/\/seosly.com\/\">Seosly<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s rock!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"What is a Google penalty?\" data-section=\"1-what-is-google-penalty\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is a Google penalty?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In simple terms, a penalty&nbsp;is a \u201cpunishment\u201d <strong>manually<\/strong>&nbsp;imposed on a website by Google\u2019s webspam team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This generally happens when the website violates Google\u2019s quality guidelines. This penalty results in a dramatic drop in rankings and organic traffic loss.&nbsp;It\u2019s worth mentioning the negative effect of Google\u2019s algorithm updates must not be mistaken for a penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Google does not use the term \u201cpenalties\u201d in its documentation. Instead, it calls them <strong>manual actions<\/strong>&nbsp;and <strong>algorithmic actions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If your organic rankings and traffic suddenly drop while your website has no downtimes or technical SEO issues, you may be facing one of two things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Your website was reviewed by a human and got a manual action.<\/li>\n<li>A Google update resulted in an algorithmic action demoting your website.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"How do penalties help Google fight spam?\" data-section=\"2-how-penalties-fight-spam\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do penalties help Google fight&nbsp;spam?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Google\u2019s mission is to present the best results to its users. Its <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/advanced\/guidelines\/webmaster-guidelines#quality_guidelines\">quality guidelines<\/a>&nbsp;explain what it expects from websites. Any attempt to manipulate its <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-ranking-factors\/\">ranking factors<\/a>&nbsp;or abuse its quality guidelines is called spam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every day, Google discovers around 40 billion spammy pages. Here\u2019s how it fights spam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"width: 1411px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/1-how-google-fights-spam.png\" alt=\"Funnel divided into 4 parts. From top to bottom: spam on web, crawled spam, indexed spam, manually actioned spam. Blue line between each part, getting thicker\" width=\"1401\" height=\"899\"><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">How Google fights spam via <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2021\/04\/how-we-fought-search-spam-2020?hl=en\">Google Search Central Blog<\/a>. The blue lines show how much work it takes to filter out&nbsp;spam.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Google has systems that can detect spam at the \u201ccrawling\u201d stage. As a result, a large number of pages considered spammy won\u2019t even make it to Google\u2019s index.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The content included in its index is double-checked for spam. Such low-quality content may be shown in the search results, but its search rankings will be&nbsp;low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As explained by Google, these AI-aided automated systems provide 99% protection against spam. Manual actions come into play for the remaining 1%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Google has a vast army of human reviewers who can impose manual actions on websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2020, they sent <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2021\/05\/working-with-you-for-safe-and-spam-free-search-2020?hl=en\">2.9 million messages<\/a>&nbsp;to site owners in Search Console related to manual webspam actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"sidenote\"><div class=\"sidenote-title\">Sidenote.<\/div> Manual actions are imposed and lifted by an in-house webspam team in Google. Don\u2019t confuse this team with the quality raters who only help Google with evaluating changes to the algorithms and are not privy to any insights regarding the inner workings of Google Search.<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"How to identify penalties (both manual and algorithmic)?\" data-section=\"3-identify-manual-and-algorithmic-penalties\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to identify penalties (both manual and algorithmic)?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Whenever a website gets a manual action, this issue will always be visible under <strong>Security and Manual actions<\/strong>&nbsp;in Google Search Console. It looks something like&nbsp;this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/2-manual-actions-report-example.png\" alt=\"Manual actions page showing the issue detected and some details about it\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>With such a message, you know the problem and can address it directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Manual actions imposed on a website will result in pages being ranked lower or omitted from the search results completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But diagnosing the effect of an&nbsp;algorithmic adjustment is much more challenging, as you will get zero notifications from Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The best way to identify an algorithmic&nbsp;action is to look at your Google organic traffic and see if you have a drop that coincides with a known or suspected algorithm update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can search through webmaster forums or Twitter to see if other webmasters are facing similar issues. <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/community?hl=en\">Google Search Central Help Community<\/a>, for example, is an excellent place to&nbsp;start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With Ahrefs, you can check if other websites in your industry are losing their rankings too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s use our blog as an example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/3-ahrefs-blog-traffic-loss.png\" alt=\"Line graph showing organic traffic of Ahrefs' blog dip after core update was implemented\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>On Dec. 3, 2020, a new core algorithm update was rolled out. Notably, Ahrefs\u2019 blog has the strongest focus on content quality; we have never bought a single backlink. So this update was a slap in the face for&nbsp;us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You should also note that <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/google-algorithm-updates\">algorithm updates<\/a> don\u2019t only demote low-quality or spammy websites; they also promote high-quality sites. So even if there\u2019s nothing \u201cwrong\u201d with your website, you can find other sites outranking you after the next core update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re \u2018hit\u2019 by a core update, you shouldn\u2019t think of it as a penalty. You might not be doing anything wrong at all, it might just be that someone is doing something better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Gary Illyes\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/google-gary-illyes.jpg\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">Gary Illyes,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\">Webmaster Trends Analyst <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\" target=\"_blank\">Google<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"What manual actions can a website get?\" data-section=\"4-manual-actions-websites-get\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What manual actions can a website get?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>There are two types of actions that can be displayed on the \u201cManual actions\u201d page. These&nbsp;are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Manual actions that affect the entire site.<\/li>\n<li>Manual actions that only affect a specific URL or section of a&nbsp;site.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n\n\n\n<p>Manual actions can be anything from quite broad to quite specific, and very fluid in between. The goal is always to neutralize the issue, and sometimes that\u2019s easy to isolate &amp; do, other times it\u2019s much harder, so we end up taking broader action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"John Mueller\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/john-mueller.jpg\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">John Mueller,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\">Search Advocate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\" target=\"_blank\">Google<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Every \u201cmanual action\u201d notification is accompanied by \u201cReason\u201d and \u201cEffects\u201d information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, the list of manual actions includes the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Site abused with third-party spam<\/li>\n<li>User-generated spam<\/li>\n<li>Spammy free&nbsp;host<\/li>\n<li>Structured data&nbsp;issue<\/li>\n<li>Unnatural links to your&nbsp;site<\/li>\n<li>Unnatural links from your&nbsp;site<\/li>\n<li>Thin content with little or no added&nbsp;value<\/li>\n<li>Cloaking and\/or sneaky redirects<\/li>\n<li>Pure spam<\/li>\n<li>Cloaked images<\/li>\n<li>Hidden text and\/or keyword stuffing<\/li>\n<li>AMP content mismatch<\/li>\n<li>Sneaky mobile redirects<\/li>\n<li>News and Discover policy violations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Whenever Google rolls out a new <strong>spam update<\/strong>, it\u2019s basically targeting the same issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>core updates<\/strong>&nbsp;address the relevance and quality of content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, you should note that manual actions can cover different Google products. But if you somehow get a manual action related to Google Discover, your regular rankings should not be affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n\n\n\n<p>News and Discover are entirely separate products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>News includes newsy-content, not just news publishers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Discover includes content from across the web, not just news content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Manual actions can happen for either; if issued, they only involve the particular product issued for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Danny Sullivan\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Danny-Sullivan.jpg\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">Danny Sullivan,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\"> Public Search Liaison <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\" target=\"_blank\">Google<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>You can read more about the Manual Actions report in this <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/9044175?hl=en\">Search Console Help article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"What causes most penalties today?\" data-section=\"5-what-causes-penalties\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What causes most penalties today?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, there\u2019s no data on the share of different penalties from Google, so I searched through recent threads on different webmaster forums and Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most common manual actions that webmasters care to resolve these days are related to the attempts to manipulate Google\u2019s search results. This may be a coincidence, but these penalties are even next to each other on the list of manual actions. These&nbsp;are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Unnatural links to your&nbsp;site.<\/li>\n<li>Unnatural links from your&nbsp;site.<\/li>\n<li>Thin content with little or no added&nbsp;value.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n\n\n\n<p>I would say that almost all Google penalties now are given because the site owner was trying too hard to manipulate Google. Five or six years ago I did see a lot of penalties that came as a result of good, honest business owners hiring poor SEO companies who built unnatural links. But, now, most of that type of link is just ignored by Penguin. As such, if you get a link penalty, you usually know that you deserved it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Marie Haynes\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/marie-haynes.png\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">Marie Haynes,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\">CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mariehaynes.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Marie Haynes Consulting<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/white-hat-seo\/\">stop doing shady stuff<\/a>, folks! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"How to analyze your backlink profile to fix and prevent link-related penalties\" data-section=\"6-analyze-backlink-profile-for-penalties\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to analyze your backlink profile to fix and prevent link-related penalties<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Links are still one of the most important <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-ranking-factors\/\">ranking factors<\/a>, so \u201cunnatural links\u201d are the reason behind a large number of penalties these&nbsp;days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, let\u2019s be honest. If you see this notification in Search Console, you most likely participated in a <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/advanced\/guidelines\/link-schemes\">link scheme<\/a>&nbsp;and know what you\u2019re hit&nbsp;for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But if you purchased a website or are working on someone else\u2019s website, you\u2019ll need to do a comprehensive <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/backlink-audit\/\">link audit<\/a>. Here are a few quick things that you can work&nbsp;on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Check your anchor texts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You must pay attention to the dominance of irrelevant or over-optimized <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/anchor-text\/\">anchor texts<\/a>&nbsp;that come from poor-quality websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first step you should take is to plug your website into Ahrefs\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\">Site Explorer<\/a>&nbsp;(or another backlink checker you like) and navigate to the <strong>Anchors<\/strong>&nbsp;report. We\u2019ve recently enhanced ours with various helpful filters. Now it\u2019s even easier to diagnose issues related to anchor texts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With a natural backlink profile, most links are URL-anchored or brand-anchored. But if a site has been heavily involved in manipulative link building, you\u2019ll usually see a lot of keyword-stuffed anchors from multiple referring domains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/4-unnatural-anchor-texts.png\" alt=\"Anchors report results showing lots of keyword-stuffed anchors\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>If the <strong>Anchors<\/strong>&nbsp;report looks something like this, that\u2019s a bad&nbsp;sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for \u201cUnnatural links from your site,\u201d you should look at the anchor texts of the outgoing links. Ahrefs\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\">Site Explorer<\/a>&nbsp;has a special report for&nbsp;that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/5-outgoing-anchors.png\" alt=\"List showing anchor texts of outgoing links\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h3>Check your referring domains<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Referring domains<\/strong>&nbsp;report in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\">Site Explorer<\/a>&nbsp;can help you identify websites explicitly built for selling links. The main attribute of such websites is the large number of sites they link to (related to the size of a website).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Besides, these websites usually get little to no traffic from Google, although they may have a pretty high <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/domain-rating\/\">Domain Rating<\/a> score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is why we added \u201cDofollow linked domains\u201d and \u201cTraffic\u201d columns straight into the <strong>Referring domains<\/strong>&nbsp;report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/6-low-quality-referring-domains.png\" alt=\"Referring domains report results \"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>For example, here at Ahrefs\u2019 blog, we\u2019ve never been greedy for external links. If a page or resource deserves a reference, we will link to&nbsp;it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our blog has approximately 2K pages indexed in Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/7-indexed-pages-at-ahrefs-blog.png\" alt=\"Google SERP of Ahrefs' blog. Shows 1,990 pages indexed in Google\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>And Ahrefs\u2019 <strong>Linked Domains<\/strong>&nbsp;report will show you that we link to around 1.5K websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"is-style-default aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/8-linked-domains-from-ahrefs-blog.png\" alt=\"Link Domains report results\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>So the ratio is close to 1:1. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s a standard for every industry, but I hope you get the idea. A website with 500 pages linking to 5K different websites should raise&nbsp;flags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You should note that a low DR&nbsp;and poor organic traffic do not always indicate a website\u2019s low quality. It could be that the website is new and could grow into a strong one over&nbsp;time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But when a linking website has low DR, ugly design and UI, low-quality content, and no organic traffic, there\u2019s no way a link from it will be considered natural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Google seems to have a well-maintained list of websites that sell links. And it may be using link-selling emails to expand that list. Check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seroundtable.com\/google-link-spam-emails-31571.html\">this article<\/a>&nbsp;from Barry Schwartz for more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get a good sense of how serious the link problem is for your site, you can access Marie Haynes\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/courses.mariehaynes.com\/tools\/disavow-blacklist-bulk-upload\/\">Disavow Blacklist Bulk Upload tool<\/a>. Then export the list of your referring domains from Ahrefs and see how many of them are on Marie\u2019s blacklist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You should also estimate the linking pages visually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Websites created for the sake of linking out are easily noticeable most of the time. Content on their pages won\u2019t make much sense, and images will be a total&nbsp;mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Recommended reading:<\/strong>&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hobo-web.co.uk\/unnatural-links\/\">How to Deal With Unnatural Links &amp; Google Manual Actions<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"How to lift penalties\" data-section=\"7-lift-penalties\">\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to lift penalties<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>To lift a manual action from your website, you must take actions to rectify the problems specified in the GSC Manual Actions message(s) and select \u201cRequest Review\u201d&nbsp;for the particular issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUnnatural links to your site\u201d is the only penalty that has its roots outside your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To rehabilitate, you must get rid of those&nbsp;links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To do that, you need to clean up your link profile as much as possible. Simply <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-disavow-links\/\">disavowing these links<\/a>&nbsp;may not suffice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s what Google\u2019s document says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote>You should make a good-faith effort to remove backlinks before using the disavow tool. It can also be helpful to document the effort involved in removing those links. Simply disavowing all backlinks without attempting to remove them might lead to rejection of your request.<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>If you have control over the link, remove it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then you should send link removal requests to webmasters. But most likely, this is going to be tough. It will often take you more than one attempt, as you\u2019ll need to look for different contacts before finding the right person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And even if you reach them, some simply won\u2019t care. And sometimes, they\u2019ll even ask you to pay to remove links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you fail to remove a link to your website, disavow the linking page or domain. But do explain why you did so in your reconsideration request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Make sure to document every step you take and every message you send to fix the issues. This log will make your reconsideration request more convincing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the penalty results from thin content, provide evidence of your improvements. Show what content you took down and what you&nbsp;added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Request a review only when you have fixed the issues on <strong>all<\/strong>&nbsp;affected pages, as the manual action can\u2019t be lifted partially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is essential to demonstrate your <strong>effort<\/strong>&nbsp;to address all&nbsp;the issues on your website, as well as any results, when you send a reconsideration request. Remember that your website will be reconsidered by humans, not machine algorithms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no limit on the number of times you can apply for reconsideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnMu\/status\/1410206675311771649<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Algorithmic actions do not imply reconsideration requests. All you can do is fix the issues that may be demoting your website and wait for Google as it recrawls and reindexes your site. Only after that will you figure out whether your site is still compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you fail to lift your penalties on the first try, repeat the above process by being more thorough this time. If you\u2019re lost, find an SEO professional who can assess the damage and find the solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Frequently asked questions about Google penalties\" data-section=\"8-google-penalties-faq\">\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Frequently asked questions about Google penalties<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is there a penalty for duplicate content?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mQZY7EmjbMA&amp;t=19s\">25%\u201330%<\/a>&nbsp;of the web is duplicate content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Google <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2008\/09\/demystifying-duplicate-content-penalty\">demystified the \u201cduplicate content penalty\u201d<\/a>&nbsp;back in 2008. Still, people keep asking this question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The short answer to this question is \u201cno.\u201d There\u2019s no penalty for duplicate content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you scrape or steal content from other websites, Google will simply rank the original.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for the duplicate pages on your website, Google will try to determine the primary URL as the canonical version. Use the <code>rel=canonical<\/code>&nbsp;labeling to help Google choose the most appropriate page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Recommended reading:<\/strong>&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/duplicate-content\/\">Duplicate Content: Why It Happens and How to Fix&nbsp;It<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Can a website get a penalty for bad or outdated design?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes minimal, old, simplified, or even ugly pages rank well, sometimes that also changes over time (it feels like you\u2019d be leaving open room for competition by being suboptimal).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"John Mueller\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/john-mueller.jpg\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">John Mueller,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\">Search Advocate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\" target=\"_blank\">Google<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Can a spam report from my competitor result in a penalty for my website?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Before 2020, Google\u2019s documentation indicated that spam reports could be used to take manual actions against websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, these reports are used only to improve their spam detection algorithms. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/advanced\/guidelines\/report-spam\">Google<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote>While Google does not use these reports to take direct action against violations, these reports still play a significant role in helping us understand how to improve our spam detection systems that protect our search results.<\/blockquote>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Should I disavow any low-quality links to prevent a manual action?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you haven\u2019t been building links, you probably have next to nothing to worry&nbsp;about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n\n\n\n<p>Random links collected over the years aren\u2019t necessarily harmful, we\u2019ve seen them for a long time too and can ignore all of those weird pieces of web-graffiti from long ago. Disavow links that were really paid for (or otherwise actively unnaturally placed), don\u2019t fret the&nbsp;cruft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"John Mueller\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/john-mueller.jpg\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">John Mueller,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\">Search Advocate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\" target=\"_blank\">Google<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How long does it take to get a response to the reconsideration request?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s no exact answer to this question. Obviously, it depends on the severity of the issue and the current load on the webspam team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s what <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/9044175?hl=en\">Google says<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote>Most reconsideration reviews can take several days or weeks, although in some cases, such as link-related reconsideration requests, it may take longer than usual to review your request.<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>In rare cases, it can take months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n\n\n\n<p>In the past 18 months, I\u2019ve experienced anywhere between 3 weeks and in one extreme case 5 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe that Google processes reconsideration requests in batches versus a conveyor belt method, and depending on the severity of the penalty\/offence and its potential impact on user welfare (of lifting the penalty), they are treated with different levels (and batched differently) of importance. Which given how Google weights resources in favour of the user majority, this makes&nbsp;sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Dan Taylor\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Dan-Taylor.jpeg\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">Dan Taylor,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\">Head of Research &amp; Development <a href=\"https:\/\/salt.agency\/\" target=\"_blank\">SALT.agency<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Can negative SEO attacks lead to manual actions?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s highly unlikely the spam links built as a <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/negative-seo\/\">negative SEO<\/a>&nbsp;attack by your competitors will demote your site. Google says it\u2019s smart enough to ignore those&nbsp;links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But if you\u2019re worried, simply <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-disavow-links\/\">disavow them<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n\n\n\n<p>In my opinion, it is rare that negative SEO attempts will lead to a manual&nbsp;action. If a site does get a manual action after a wave of negative SEO links are pointed at them, it almost always turns out that the site had also been involved in a lot of their own link building as&nbsp;well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Marie Haynes\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/marie-haynes.png\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">Marie Haynes,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\">CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mariehaynes.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Marie Haynes Consulting<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So if you do some black-hat SEO, negative SEO from your black-hat competition may bring unnecessary attention to your website. Isn\u2019t that another signal to <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/white-hat-seo\/\">quit black hat<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Can a penalty expire?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To my surprise, manual actions do expire. Algorithm actions don\u2019t, and they\u2019re only getting better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-172971\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Screenshot-2024-03-18-at-12.42.00.png\" alt=\"John Mueller confirming that manual actions do expire, but algorithm actions don\u2019t\" width=\"1182\" height=\"618\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Screenshot-2024-03-18-at-12.42.00.png 1182w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Screenshot-2024-03-18-at-12.42.00-680x356.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Screenshot-2024-03-18-at-12.42.00-768x402.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1182px) 100vw, 1182px\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Will my website performance on search become normal once the manual action is lifted?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The general answer is \u201cyes.\u201d Google does not hold a grudge against websites with lifted manual actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n\n\n\n<p>Site being \u2018tainted\u2019 after a manual action is a SEO myth. You request a RR and if successful, you\u2019re off the&nbsp;hook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Gary Illyes\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/google-gary-illyes.jpg\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">Gary Illyes,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\">Webmaster Trends Analyst <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\" target=\"_blank\">Google<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>John Mueller even recorded a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8ynNMU4arXM\">dedicated video<\/a>&nbsp;on this&nbsp;topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But things may be a bit more complicated than&nbsp;that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n\n\n\n<p>Over the years I\u2019ve worked with a number of websites that have had manual actions, link penalties, and once lifted the website has been able to rebuild and progress. When lifting a link penalty, there is oftentimes a misconception that \u2018performance will return to normal,\u2019 but people forget that they will have had some benefit from the backlinks originally, impacting performance - otherwise why would Google see them as manipulations if they didn\u2019t work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Dan Taylor\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Dan-Taylor.jpeg\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">Dan Taylor,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\">Head of Research &amp; Development <a href=\"https:\/\/salt.agency\/\" target=\"_blank\">SALT.agency<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n\n\n\n<p>A website gets a manual action usually because the techniques it was using were actually working. Even after the manual action is lifted, the site gets back to the point from before these black hat\/grey hat techniques were implemented and actually started to&nbsp;work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Olga Zarzeczna\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/yCSCdfIa_400x400.jpg\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">Olga Zarzeczna,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\">SEO Consultant <a href=\"https:\/\/seosly.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Seosly<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I did some research and came across <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/TechSEO\/comments\/87pxsu\/i_am_john_mueller_webmaster_trends_analyst_at\/\">John\u2019s AMA session on Reddit<\/a>, where he took the time to answer tons of interesting questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s no \u2018reset button\u2019 for a domain, we don\u2019t even have that internally, so a manual review wouldn\u2019t change anything there. If there\u2019s a lot of bad history associated with that, you either have to live with it, clean it up as much as possible, or move to a different domain. I realize that can be a hassle, but it\u2019s the same with any kind of business, cleaning up a bad name\/reputation can be a lot of work, and it\u2019s hard to say ahead of time if it\u2019ll be worth it in the&nbsp;end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"John Mueller\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/john-mueller.jpg\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">John Mueller,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\">Search Advocate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\" target=\"_blank\">Google<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Final thoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As you saw from this post, websites mostly suffer from Google\u2019s penalties because of low-quality content and <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/black-hat-seo-tactics\/\">shady SEO techniques<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to make your website bulletproof, make sure it meets <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-quality-raters-guidelines\/\">Google\u2019s quality guidelines<\/a>, follows the <a href=\"\/blog\/eeat-seo\/\" data-ahr=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/eat-seo\/\">E-A-T principles<\/a>,&nbsp;and has a natural link profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apart from that, monitor your site for hacking and remove hacked content as soon as possible to prevent user-generated spam on your&nbsp;site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Have more thoughts to share? Got questions? Ping me <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nickchurick\">on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this post, you will learn the following: What a Google penalty is How penalties help Google fight&nbsp;spam How to identify manual and algorithmic actions What manual actions websites can&nbsp;get What causes most penalties today How to analyze backlink profile<span class=\"ellipsis\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more \u203a<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":138271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[335],"tags":[],"coauthors":[356],"class_list":["post-138017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-seo","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO 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