Search engine algorithms are constantly changing in an effort to bring their users the most relevant content possible. So, SEO tactics that you may use today to get yourself to the top of the search engines may not work tomorrow.
You may have already experienced such problems and are currently looking for a way to correct it. Here are five steps to help you evaluate your current situation and take action to correct any mistakes.
Check to Make Sure Site is Indexed
The easiest way to check if your site is indexed by Google is to enter the following search query into Google: “site:www.yourwebsiteurl.com.” If any results are returned, then your site is indexed. If your site is indexed, you can skip the next step. If not, please continue to the next step.
Discover Why Site is Not Indexed
While there can be many reasons why your site is not indexed, a common problem is with the robots.txt file, which is a text document that resides at the root of your domain to tell search engine spiders which pages they may or may not index. Updating and uploading the robots.txt file can be a little tricky and requires FTP software, but there are WordPress plugins, such as Robots.txt, that can help you manage and modify your robots.txt file from the dashboard.
Determine What Penalization Your Site Has
If your website is indexed but is lost in the rankings, your site could be being penalized by the search engines for some problems. There are really two types of penalties: manual action or algorithmic-based. The first place you will want to check is your Google Webmaster Tools. If the penalty is of a manual action – possible “black hat” practices – then Google will notate the account and actions may be taken to correct the problems.
If the issue is algorithmic-based, then the site was automatically penalized through either the Penguin or Panda updates. The Penguin update targeted spammy backlink practices and Panda targeted low quality and duplicate content on websites.
Resolving Penguin and Panda Penalties
Once you have determined which penalties have been applied to your site, corrective action may be taken.
Penguin
If the Penguin update is to blame, you will need to use tools like LinkResearchTools.com or LinkDetox.com to analyze backlinks to your site to determine which links are the most toxic to your site. Collect all the low-quality links together in a spreadsheet and then go through Google’s link disavow process (the tool is in the Webmaster Tools), upload your spreadsheet to Google, and pray the Google gods smile favorably upon you. If the penalties are not lifted, you will need to go through the disavow process once again.
Panda
If your site suffers from a Panda update penalty, the penalty likely stems from poor site-quality problems, such as low-quality content, poor grammar and spelling, too large of an ad-to-content ratio, large amounts of broken links (404 errors), missing meta tag information, and duplicate content.
Fix content quality issues by either rewriting the content or removing and deindexing those articles. If needed, use 301 redirects for pages that are removed to retain any backlink integrity. Clean up any 404 errors with 301 redirects as well. The WordPress plugin, Redirection, can help with redirects.
Missing meta tags can be added either through your SEO plugin or the Add Meta Tags plugin.
Bouncing back from a Panda penalty can be a long process of deleting, editing, and rewriting content. Using social media to promote your quality content can help speed the process up, but it will always just be good practice to create and publish quality content.
Going Mobile
Since April 21, 2015, Google has been expanding its use of mobile-friendly factors in its search algorithm. Sites that are not mobile-friendly will be penalized, so if you are not mobile-friendly already, it should be a top priority to become so as soon as possible.
Recovering from penalties can be labor-intensive and take a long time. However, patience and perseverance will pay off in the long run.