Let’s discuss the types of penalties first: Manual vs. Algorithmic/Automatic.

Manual Penalty:

A manual penalty is applied when someone at Google, Probably in their Spam Team does a hand check of your site and finds a problem. They then manually apply the penalty. How does your site get on their radar? Here are a few ways:

1. Totally Random:
Google’s goal is to provide spam-free, good quality and RELEVANT results. When a new algorithm is rolled out or during an existing one, they are constantly checking the quality of the search results and the sites that appear in these results. Through this process, if someone spots a site that doesn’t conform to their guidelines, they will then alert Google’s Spam team to investigate further.

2. Red Flagged:
Google’s algorithm could automatically send suspicious sites over to their quality /spam team for further investigation, and if the sites are in fact guilty, they will receive a penalty.

3. By another Webmaster:
If you have an account at Google’s Webmaster Tools, you can manually alert Google to a suspicious site and send a detailed explanation on what you suspect the other site is doing to violate Google’s TOS. If you intentionally try to break the rules, you will be caught!

Algorithmic/Automatic:

Good rankings are awarded by Google based on how well your site scores according to its current algorithm. The Google ranking algorithm takes into account many variables to determine your sites “score”. If one of these variables comes into question then your site can automatically be awarded a penalty. Because this penalty is applied automatically, it can usually be reversed once the offending item has been corrected or removed.

In a regular trial, we are allowed to plead guilty or not guilty before a sentence is handed down. However, in this situation you are immediately given a sentence without a proper trial. Nevertheless, Google may be kind enough to alert webmasters through Google’s Webmaster console.

There are three types of offenders, the innocent, the ignorant and the intentional.

The Innocent: Believe it or not, there are actually innocent sites that have done nothing wrong, and through the actions of a third party, i.e. a hosting company, you can be awarded a penalty.

The Ignorant: The ignorant site relates to the actions of a webmaster or site owner who takes action without fully understanding the consequences, i.e. another site approaches you and offers you $40/month to sell a link to them. You are unaware that this violates Google’s Terms of service and proceed, and later you are perplexed when your sales and traffic disappear. We could also say that if you hire an unethical search engine optimisation firm, who has not been fully checked out, you could also receive a penalty from their work. You might want to check out Google’s Guidelines on selecting an SEO Firm. You might suggest that the ignorant are actually the innocent. They are not, due to the fact that they paid for a service and should be aware of the consequences before embarking on such a strategy. R.O.I Media always plays with a deck of open cards on all its methods and complies to a strict Code of Conduct.

The Guilty: The guilty embark on risky strategies (Black Hat) that completely violate Google’s TOS. These strategies include buying or selling text links, hidden links and text, keyword spamming/ repetition, over optimisation penalty (trying too hard to optimise your site),linking to bad neighbourhoods or banned sites, excessive reciprocal linking, doorway pages, automated redirects and the list goes on….and on….. Don’t do a crime if you can’t do the time.

Now that we have a penalty, what now?

To get back into Google, you would have in the past filed a re-inclusion request into their index. Interestingly enough, this has changed to a reconsideration request, meaning that Google should reconsider your request but has no obligation to.

Before we attempt to get back into Google, like a trial, we need to gather evidence and proceed with caution, gathering all our facts before submitting our case into Google’s Webmaster Console. The process of removing a penalty requires its own post and will be fully covered in a follow-up post.