- Can You Get Banned from Google?
- What Types of Penalties Are There?
- Why Does My Website Keep Getting Penalized?
Can you get banned from Google?
As a matter of fact, you can. Quite easily! Because Google is the controller of all accounts and services, they are the sole arbiters in deciding whether or not to ban an account. The full terms of service for Google accounts can be found here, including the most important line from that long article: “We may suspend or stop providing our Services to you if you do not comply with our terms or policies or if we are investigating suspected misconduct.” This effectively gives Google free reign to conduct themselves however they wish, since concepts like “misconduct” are entirely their prerogative to define. This means that you better be on your best behavior, or Google can take your account away! The Google Search Engine is not a lawless Wild West and there are definitely rules (as defined by Google), so moderation practices can and will affect you if applicable. So what are the rules? 1. Avoid Irrelevant Keywords. If your website is about pizza, why are you keywording for “computer software deals?” Google understands this and will crack down accordingly. [caption id="attachment_14049" align="aligncenter" width="420"]What types of penalties are there?
Google can enact a variety of policies when it comes to disciplining accounts. Mostly, these fold into two categories, being Algorithm and Manual penalties. Proper SEO practices take time, so dealing with either of these penalties can have a dramatic effect on your overall work output.Manual Penalties
These penalties are doled out from an official Google employee tasked with this very job, and who spends their time looking for sites that violate the guidelines they have laid out in their Terms of Service. They have a lengthy search guideline page that should be consulted anytime one is worried about the rules. Google ban reasons are usually very simple and these employees will let you know.Algorithm Penalties
These penalties are automated and trigger when your website is found by one of the many algorithms running on Google’s platforms at any given moment. One such example, the Panda algorithm looks for duplicate content on the web to flag. These penalties are difficult to work with since they were given to you by an automated process. This means that you may have issues trying to rectify the situation if you believe they were given to you by mistake.See also: Manual Action and Google Algorithm Filter Definitions