20 Worst Types of Google Penalties You Need to Avoid

Imagine waking up to discover that your website traffic has drastically dropped overnight. The culprit? One, or possibly more, Google penalties. 

The scenario above can be a nightmare for anyone who owns a website. Google directs over 175 billion visits each month, and falling out of its favor can be devastating.

Google penalties can derail your hard-earned search engine rankings and significantly decrease your site’s visibility, which often results in a severe drop in traffic. This not only affects your immediate online presence but can also lead to a long and difficult recovery process. 

Moreover, the reputation damage from such penalties can discourage trust from your potential visitors.

It may sound scary, but all of these can be avoided.

This blog aims to guide you through Google’s strictest sanctions. By understanding the types of Google penalties, you can arm yourself with the knowledge to avoid them or, if necessary, recover from them.

What Are Google Penalties and Why Are They Bad?

Google penalties are sanctions imposed on websites. These penalties come from breaking SEO rules. Because of them, websites can rank lower in search results or not appear at all. Penalties can target specific queries, URLs, or even the whole site.

There are two main types of Google penalties. The first one, manual Google penalties, are set by Google’s team. They need a fix and a request for reconsideration. Algorithmic Google penalties, on the other hand, adjust automatically after corrections are made. They stem from Google updates like Penguin, Panda, and others.

Penalties can decrease rankings or remove pages from search results entirely. When a site receives a Google penalty, it becomes less visible or invisible to its target audience. This drop in visibility can lead to less traffic and reduced income.

Now why are penalties issued? First, it’s important to know that Google aims to provide the best search results for its users. Any site seen as manipulating results harms its reliability. These penalties ensure Google maintains useful and relevant search results.

Google Penalties and How to Recover from Them

Now, let’s take a look at some of the most common penalties that Google imposes and a step-by-step guide on how to recover from them.

1. Thin Content

Thin content is a type of content that doesn’t offer much to its readers. In other words, it lacks depth and quality. It can also be described as rushed content for the sake of publishing lots of articles.

Google is not a fan of thin content. Why? Because it doesn’t help the people using Google to find useful information. Thin content can have very little text or nothing new compared to other sites.

It might be stuffed with too many keywords or even copied from somewhere else.

Also, if people don’t find what they need on your site and leave quickly, it increases your bounce rates. High bounce rates tell Google your content isn’t valuable, which can hurt your ranking even more.

How to Fix Thin Content

1. Create content that is unique and genuinely valuable to your audience.
2. Ensure all content is well-researched and relevant to your target audience’s interests.
3. Structure your content to be engaging and easy to read.
4. Avoid overusing keywords and follow the tips from Google Search Essentials.
5. Use tools like Google Search Console and plagiarism checkers to find and improve thin content.
6. Regularly audit your content to maintain high-quality standards.

2. Unnatural Links

Unnatural links are a big red flag for any website. These are links that mainly exist to boost a site’s search rankings. 

Links with excessively optimized anchor text, PR-passing advertisements, low-quality or hidden links included in widgets, and more are a few examples. 

Often, unnatural links don’t provide any real value to visitors. They might be bought, swapped, or even created just to deceive search engines. These links can make a site seem more popular or authoritative than it really is.

Google takes these links seriously because it makes it harder for users to find genuinely useful content. Google aims to keep searches fair and valuable, so it penalizes sites that use these sneaky links to climb the search ladder.

How to Fix Unnatural Links

1. Conduct a backlink audit using tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or Semrush.
2. Identify and evaluate the quality and relevance of each link to spot the unnatural ones.
3. Contact the webmasters of these sites and request that they remove the links.
4. If removal requests fail, use Google’s Disavow Tool to have these links ignored.
5. After cleaning up your links, if your site was penalized, submit a reconsideration request to Google. Explain what steps you took and provide documentation of your efforts.

3. Keyword Stuffing and Hidden Text

Keyword stuffing happens when you pack the same keywords into a webpage repeatedly. This is done to try to get a higher ranking on search engines like Google. But doing so makes the content hard to read and less useful. 

Too many keywords can make the text feel fake and spammy. This turns visitors away and often lowers the quality of your site.

Another sneaky tactic is using hidden text. It involves putting text on a webpage that visitors can’t see but search engines can. People do this by making the text the same color as the background or hiding it off-screen.

Like keyword stuffing, hidden text tries to trick search engines into giving a higher ranking. 

Google penalizes these practices because they don’t meet the high standards expected for content. They try to game the system instead of improving content quality. As a result, Google may lower the site’s ranking or remove it from search results.

How to Fix Keyword Stuffing and Hidden Text

1. Go through your content and cut down on repeated keywords. Use synonyms and related terms to improve the flow.
2. Aim to meet user needs with your content. Make sure your keywords are natural and add real value.
3. Use SEO tools like Yoast SEO to check keyword density and maintain a natural tone.
4. Check your website’s code for any hidden text. Remove or redesign it so it’s visible and useful to users.
5. Keep a close eye on your website, especially if others handle your web development or content. Make sure no hidden text slips in.
6. Document any changes you make. This record will help if you need to discuss these changes with Google or others.

4. Cloaking and Sneaky Redirects

Cloaking and sneaky redirects are tactics that can trick both users and search engines. They go against Google’s rules by showing one thing to search engines and another to users.

Sneaky redirects are similar to deceit. They send users to a different site than what they originally searched for, which can be misleading and result in a bad user experience.

For instance, a page optimized for SEO might show a page about fashion and clothing to search engines while showing a page about travel destinations to users.

Google is strict about these tactics because they harm the quality of search results. When sites use cloaking or sneaky redirects, Google responds with heavy penalties that include removing sites from its index or dropping their rankings sharply.

How to Fix Cloaking and Sneaky Redirects

1. Use tools like Google’s URL Inspection tool to compare what Google sees and what users see.
2. Remove any cloaking or deceptive redirects that show different content to Google and users.
3. Ensure that all users see the same content as search engines, no matter their device or location.
4. Once you’ve made corrections, submit a reconsideration request to Google. Detail what was wrong, how you fixed it, and provide supporting documents.
5. Keep monitoring your website through tools and alerts in Google Search Console.

5. AMP Content Mismatch

AMP, or Accelerated Mobile Pages, is designed to speed up webpage loading and is ideal for mobile web viewing. 

Content mismatch is when the AMP version of a webpage doesn’t match its non-AMP counterpart. This can confuse and frustrate users who don’t find the information they expect. 

Google penalizes these mismatches because it can cause trust issues. Users might feel misled if the content they click on doesn’t match what was advertised in the search result. This hurts the reliability of Google’s search results.

As a consequence, Google might remove the AMP page from mobile search results. This is done to ensure that all users have a reliable and consistent experience when they click on a link. 

Keeping your AMP and non-AMP pages consistent is important. You must make sure they contain essentially the same information, even though they might be formatted differently. This helps avoid penalties and improves the user experience on your site.

How to Fix AMP Content Mismatch

1. Check that the AMP and non-AMP versions of your website have the same content.
2. Use the <link rel=”canonical”> tag on AMP pages to link to the non-AMP versions, and the <link rel=”amphtml”> tag on non-AMP pages to link to the AMP versions.
3. Validate your AMP pages using tools like the AMP Validator to find and fix any errors.
4. Monitor how your AMP pages perform in search results using Google Search Console.
5. If penalized, correct any mismatches and submit a reconsideration request via Google Search Console.

6. User-Generated Spam

User-generated spam is an unwelcome addition to any website. It typically shows up in comments, forums, or guest posts. Users might leave irrelevant links and text that harm your site’s quality and its user experience. 

In 2021, Google caught two hundred times more spam sites with its SpamBrain initiative. 

Because of this, keeping your site clean of user-generated spam is crucial. It helps maintain your site’s authority and ensures a better experience for your users.

A site free of spam is more likely to be valued by both users and search engines. This can boost your site’s visibility and trustworthiness in search results.

How to Fix User-Generated Spam

1. Monitor and moderate user interactions on your site. Use tools to approve content before it’s posted.
2. Implement anti-spam measures like reCAPTCHA to block automated spam submissions.
3. Set clear rules for what is acceptable on your site and encourage users to report spam.
4. Use automated tools to spot and remove spammy content based on common spam indicators.
5. Regularly check your site for spam, especially in sections that allow user content.
6. If Google has penalized your site, remove the spam and submit a reconsideration request via Google Search Console. Explain your actions to clean up and prevent future spam.

7. Spammy Free Host

When your web hosting service is hit with a Spammy Free Host penalty by Google, it’s serious business. This penalty impacts hosts that have a large number of spammy sites. 

A host under penalty from Google faces widespread issues. Not just the spammy websites are affected, but all sites under the host’s management face the same consequences as well. This occurs because Google starts to see the web host as unreliable.

It questions the host’s ability to keep its network clean.

Imagine being a website owner under such a host. It’s possible that you’re not doing anything wrong yourself. Yet, your website suffers because your host did not manage its network effectively. 

Therefore, choosing the right host is important to avoid these problems. Look for hosts known for strict management and good security practices. A good host actively monitors its clients and maintains a clean, spam-free environment. This protects you from falling into a bad neighborhood on the web.

How to Fix Spammy Free Host

1. Audit the Hosted Sites: Perform comprehensive checks on all hosted sites to pinpoint any involved in spam or malicious activities.
2. Enforce Stricter Policies: Adopt and apply tougher policies for accepting and monitoring hosted websites.
3. Remove Offending Sites: Act quickly to take down any sites breaking Google’s rules.
4. Communicate with Google: Once you clean up, talk to Google via Search Console. Explain what you’ve done and ask for a review of the penalty.

8. Poor Mobile Experience

Imagine a site that loads slowly, and has tiny text, or navigation buttons that are hard to tap on a phone. This kind of poor performance doesn’t just annoy users, it can also push them to leave the site quickly.

Google recognizes this problem. That’s why it penalizes sites that don’t work well on mobile devices.

But why does Google care so much about the mobile experience of its users? As more people now access the internet on mobile devices than on desktops, Google wants to make sure they find content that’s easy to use on their phones.

If a site isn’t optimized for mobile, it could drop in search rankings. 

Making sure your site performs well on mobile is important. Users expect quick, easy-to-navigate sites on their phones. If your site meets these expectations, visitors are more likely to stay longer and engage more with your content. 

How to Fix Poor Mobile Experience

1. Implement a design that adjusts to any screen size. This helps ensure your site looks good on all devices.
2. Work on making your site load faster. Optimize images, use browser caching, and minify CSS and JavaScript files.
3. Make sure your text is easy to read without zooming. Space out links and buttons so they’re easier to tap.
4. Check for errors that affect mobile users, like incorrect redirects or unplayable content.

9. Pure Spam

Pure spam is one of the worst penalties a website can face from Google. It involves using aggressive spam techniques that greatly violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This could be anything from auto-generated content to sneaky redirects and using copied material from other sites. 

Websites that use these deceitful practices try to climb search rankings without offering real value. This is not only frustrating to users but also lowers the quality of search results overall. Google’s crackdown on pure spam helps ensure that the most helpful and relevant content rises to the top.

If your site has been penalized for pure spam, it’s crucial to take immediate action to clean it up. The goal is to restore trust with both Google and your site visitors. Remember, the integrity of your site affects its visibility online.

How to Fix Issues Related to Pure Spam

1. Examine Google’s spam policies to learn about the violations that resulted in the manual action.
2. Get rid of all auto-generated, misleading, and non-valuable content.
3. Make sure your content fully complies with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
4. Once your site is cleaned up, ask Google to reconsider your site via Google Search Console.
5. Keep an eye on your site to prevent future violations. Check for and fix any security gaps.
6. Stay updated on SEO best practices and the latest Google guidelines.

10. Structured Data Issues

Structured data issues arise when the markup used to help search engines understand your content is faulty. It either means you’ve left out the necessary information or got the format wrong. 

When structured data is done properly, it can make your site’s listings more appealing in search results with rich snippets, which can boost your visibility and click-through rates.

Google penalizes errors in structured data because it wants the rich snippets in its search results to be reliable and useful. If your site’s structured data is off, it can show misleading or irrelevant information in these snippets. 

Fixing structured data issues is key to maintaining both the effectiveness of your SEO and the usability of your site. When these issues are corrected, your site can better communicate with search engines.

Keeping your structured data clean and accurate is an ongoing task that requires regular checks and updates.

How to Fix Issues with Structured Data

• Use tools like Google’s Rich Results Test to check for errors.
• Adjust your markup based on tool feedback. Fix formats and fill in missing fields.
• Use comprehensive schemas from Schema.org to cover necessary fields.
• Use Google Search Console to monitor your structured data’s performance and catch issues via notifications.
• Keep testing and updating your structured data after making changes.

11. Abusing Rich Snippets

In order to help you get more attention and traffic from search engines, rich snippets, also known as “rich results,” are a sort of Google search result that display more information about your webpage, such as ratings, photographs, and prices.

Usually, structured data markup, which is a type of special code embedded in HTML webpages, is where Google gets these extra details.

Abusing rich snippets is a deceptive practice some websites use to manipulate search results. This involves misusing structured data to give false information in rich snippets. 

Examples include fake reviews, incorrect product statuses, or misleading author details. These tactics are designed to boost a website’s appeal and click-through rates unfairly.

Google penalizes this abuse because it harms user trust and experience. Rich snippets should offer helpful and quick insights into what a webpage contains. Misleading rich snippets can distort the authenticity and relevance of search results.

How to Fix Rich Snippet Abuse

1. Ensure your structured data accurately represents your page content. Remove any false information.
2. Use tools like Google’s Rich Results Test to check your structured data for compliance.
3. Watch your search performance and update your markup as Google’s policies evolve.
4. If penalized, correct your data and ask Google to reevaluate your site.

12. Automatic Content Generation

Automatic content generation is about using algorithms or computer programs to create content without human help. This content often comes from AI and machine learning tools.

With the help of these tools, you can churn out articles, reports, and other types of content quickly and in large volumes.

The thing is, Google doesn’t stop anyone from leveraging AI to create content, as long as the content still maintains a high quality. Automatically generated content without any form of human intervention usually lacks the quality, relevance, and usefulness that users need.

Content that just aims to rank well without offering real value can be nonsensical, poorly written, or not even relevant to what people are searching for. Because of this, Google sees such content as spam and might penalize sites by dropping their rankings or removing them from search results.

To maintain a trustworthy site, it’s important to keep your overall content quality high. Websites that use automatically generated content risk losing their credibility. They also disappoint users who expect useful and engaging information.

How to Fix Automatic Content Generation

1. Identify any automatically generated content on your site and remove it. Replace it with high-quality, human-written content.
2. If you use AI tools, make sure they assist in content creation without taking over the process. Always have human writers review and refine the final output.
3. Always prioritize creating content that is informative, well-researched, and answers your audience’s needs.
4. Keep an eye on how your content performs. Use tools like Google Search Console to ensure your content aligns with SEO best practices.
5. Stay updated with Google’s guidelines and algorithm changes. This knowledge helps you avoid techniques that could lead to penalties.

13. Over-Optimized Anchor Text

You may be over-optimizing your anchor text when you use specific keywords or phrases too much in the clickable parts of links. Often, it involves repeatedly using exact-match keywords, which can make a site’s link profile look unnatural to search engines.

Google penalizes over-optimized anchor text because it usually indicates manipulative link-building. It often does not reflect the true content of the linked page, leading to confusion for both users and search engines. This kind of SEO tactic can lower the quality of search results. 

In general, overdoing your keywords not just in anchor texts does not help users and goes against Google’s aim to deliver high-quality search experiences.

How to Fix Over-Optimized Anchor Text

1. Review your site’s link profile to spot any overuse of specific anchor texts. Tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or Google Search Console can assist in this analysis.
2. Diversify your anchor text strategy. Include variations like branded terms, generic phrases, and partial match keywords.
3. Rephrase over-optimized anchors to sound more natural and descriptive. This should better reflect the content of the linked pages.
4. Ensure the anchor text is relevant to the destination page.
5. If needed, update your site’s content to align with the new, varied anchor texts. This will improve relevance and user engagement.

14. Ad-heavy Page Layout

An ad-heavy page layout is when a webpage has too many ads, especially in the area visible before you scroll down. This part of the page is called “above the fold.” Google fixed this issue with its Top Heavy Update, a page layout algorithm update that was released in January 2021. 

Websites that overwhelm this prime space with ads instead of content can get penalized. In other words, Google discourages layouts that prioritize ads over content.

The reason for this is that users often have to scroll too much to find the real content they came for. This can lead to poor UX and frustrated users, which Google wants to avoid. 

How to Fix Ad-heavy Page Layout

1. Reevaluate your ad placement. Make sure key content, especially high-quality and relevant information, is visible above the fold. Reduce the number of ads in this important area of your webpage.
2. Design your pages with the user experience in mind. Ensure that ads do not overpower the content or push it too far down the page.
3. Utilize tools like Windows Resizer to see how your content displays across different devices. This helps ensure that important content is visible without scrolling.
4. After making layout changes, monitor how they affect your site’s traffic and search rankings. It may take time for changes to show results as Google re-crawls and reindexes your site.

15. Expired Domain Abuse

When someone buys a domain that has recently expired and uses it to try and manipulate search engine rankings, this is considered expired domain abuse. This often involves hosting low-quality or completely irrelevant content.

The goal is to leverage the domain’s existing authority and SEO benefits built up over its previous life.

For example, a domain that used to host a respected educational site might be repurposed for something totally unrelated like gambling, misleading both search engines and users.

Google penalizes this kind of abuse to maintain the quality and relevance of search results. This practice goes against Google’s commitment to rewarding high-quality, informative content that truly benefits users.

How to Fix Expired Domain Abuse

• If you acquire an expired domain, use it responsibly. Host high-quality content that aligns with the domain’s past profile or offers clear, new value.
• Avoid using expired domains to host irrelevant content or to redirect users to low-quality sites.
• Regularly monitor the content and backlinks of any expired domain you own. Ensure all content is original, relevant, and valuable.
• If redirecting from an expired domain, ensure the redirection makes sense and adds value for the user.

16. Hacked Site

Hacked or compromised sites can be a tool for cybercrime, as this can include hidden links or sneaky redirects that can be harmful to their visitors.

When your website is hacked, Google may or may not immediately remove it from the search results. If the site isn’t removed yet, Google will add a warning next to the site’s URL. Clicking the URL leads to a full-screen alert about the site’s potential harm.

Additionally, Google sends the site owner a specific message about the hacked content and the URL that’s affected. This type of warning appears in the Security Issues tab in your Google Search Console.

To know if a site has been flagged for unsafe content, you can check it through Google’s Transparency Report. 

How to Fix a Hacked Site 

1. Scan your site with malware scanners to find the problem.
2. Let your hosting provider know about the attack.
3. Take your site offline until the problem is resolved.
4. Verify ownership of your site.
5. Request a review from Google to get your website or page unflagged.

Once you get your website back, you should:

• Install security apps or plugins. You can also run security checks regularly.
• Add an SSL certificate to make your connection secure.
• Check for and fix mixed content issues.
• Back up your website data regularly.
• Update your CMS and plugins often.
• Secure your login by hiding URLs, requiring strong passwords, and enabling two-step verification.

17. Duplicate Content

Duplicate content often occurs when identical or very similar content appears on multiple web pages. This could be product descriptions copied across various e-commerce sites to blog posts republished without making significant changes at all.

Although not penalized directly by the Google search engine, duplicate content can still negatively affect your site.

The main problem arises from the dilution of link equity. When different sites link to similar content across various pages, it spreads out the impact these links might have had if focused only on a single page. This scattering can weaken the overall effectiveness of your site’s SEO strategy.

Moreover, it complicates how search engines view the importance and authority of your content.

Another significant issue is the crawl budget. Search engines allocate limited resources to analyze each site. If a site has a lot of duplicate content, search engines might waste valuable crawling time that can prevent them from indexing other unique and potentially more important content.

How to Fix Duplicate Content

1. Add canonical tags to your web pages. These tags tell search engines which version of a page is the main one.
2. Update pages that have the same content by adding new insights, analysis, or information. Make sure each page offers something valuable and unique to your visitors.
3. Use 301 redirects to lead users and search engines from less important pages to the main ones.
4. Set up Google Search Console to ignore URL parameters that lead to duplicate content. This helps make your site indexing cleaner and more efficient.

18. Doorways

Also known as doorway pages, they are sites created to rank for specific, similar search queries. These pages are often stuffed with keywords and duplicated content from other domains. 

For example, if you search for a specific term, you might find several results that all direct you to the same website. This can be frustrating if you leave one result and try another, only to end up at the same place again. 

It can also mean having several websites with slight changes in their URLs and home pages. Or multiple domain names or pages tailored to different regions or cities, all directing users to a single page.

Google’s guidelines are clear that creating doorway pages is a violation that can result in a site being demoted or removed from search results entirely.  If Google detects doorway pages, it can apply penalties not just to those pages but potentially to the entire site.

How to Fix Doorways

1. Simply don’t engage in this practice. It’s risky and can backfire on your website.
2. If you already have doorway pages, remove them or update them with genuine, useful content.
3. Make sure any redirects on your site lead to appropriate and relevant pages.
4. Develop content that genuinely meets the needs of your users and adheres to SEO best practices.

19. Malicious Behaviors and Malware

Malware and malicious behaviors are serious problems for website owners. Google therefore checks your site for these issues to keep visitors safe. 

Malware includes any software intended to harm devices or their users. This can be through unwanted software installations or harmful activities like spreading viruses. Often, website owners don’t realize their sites host harmful software.

Unwanted software can also cause issues. It includes any applications that change user settings without clear permission. For example, it might change your homepage or share your personal information without your consent. 

Google’s policies help maintain a safe browsing experience. If a site breaks these rules, Google will penalize them accordingly.

How to Fix Malicious Behaviors and Malware

1. Check Google’s Unwanted Software Policy to see if your app or software follows its rules and conditions.
2. If your site is flagged, clean it up and then ask for a review through the Security Issues report in Google Search Console.
3. Avoid deceptive ads. Make sure ads are clear about what they offer and do not mislead users into downloading unwanted software.
4. Be transparent and explain any changes your software makes to a user’s system or browser clearly before they install anything.

20. Dangerous Content

Google’s News and Discover platforms are stringent about not allowing dangerous content. This term covers a broad range of harmful materials, including health misinformation, promotion of dangerous activities, and content that incites violence. 

Google aims to keep harmful misinformation from spreading, and for good reasons. In the health sector, for example, wrong information relayed to the public can have serious consequences. With that, Google has the right and obligation to flag this type of misinformative content for the public’s safety.

If your content is flagged there are several steps you can take to address the issue.

How to Fix Dangerous Content

1. Make sure you understand and follow Google’s News policies and content guidelines.
2. Regularly check your content. Ensure it doesn’t contain harmful or misleading information. Update or remove any content that breaks Google’s rules.
3. Set high fact-checking and editorial standards to prevent dangerous content from being published.
4. Once you’ve made the necessary changes, ask Google to reevaluate your site.

Not All Penalties Are Forthcoming

Google doesn’t always tell you when or why your website gets penalized to keep its search results fair and trustworthy.

Often, penalties happen for several reasons, and not just one. This makes it harder to figure out the exact root cause of your penalty without looking closely at your website’s content and strategies over time.

For penalties caused by the algorithm, Google usually doesn’t send out notices. This means website owners need to guess what might be wrong by observing changes in their website’s traffic and search rankings.

To handle and maybe fix a penalty, it’s crucial to keep an eye on your website using tools like Google Search Console. Most importantly, you have to stay informed about the best practices and any changes Google makes to its search algorithms.

FAQs about Google Penalties

Google Penalties Can Be Fixed

The penalties that Google imposes can greatly impact people and businesses that depend on the success of their websites.

But, if you know what you’re doing and strictly follow Google’s rules, you can avoid these problems. By committing to creating high-quality and engaging content, you protect your site from penalties and ensure it remains successful and stable.

Don’t wait for a penalty to realize you need to make changes. Check your website, update your content, and improve your SEO tactics.

If you need help or have questions, join the discussion below. Let’s talk about how to keep your site free from Google penalties.