Ranking higher on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) is the primary goal for any e-commerce business. A higher ranking not only boosts the traffic on your website, which ultimately increases your sales, but it also enhances the authenticity of your business. But while there are many things you can do to rank higher on Google, not everything goes – watch out for Google penalties!
What is Google penalty?
Google aims to provide its users with the optimal search experience, with high-quality websites that are relevant to visitors. Therefore, it constantly improves its ranking algorithm to filter out “good” websites from “bad” ones. This also means that websites that go against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines will be penalized and, as a result, end up further down on the SERPs.
What exactly does Google penalize?
There are two kinds of Google penalties: algorithmic and manual penalties. The former is designed to identify websites with keyword stuffing, language errors, low-quality content, and so-called black hat linking strategies, i.e., techniques that increase a website’s traffic by exploiting website loopholes.
Manual penalties, on the other hand, are imposed for bad quality, security issues as well as for black hat SEO. The consequences of these penalties are a drop in search engine ranking and traffic. This article gives you all the necessary information to obtain a higher Google ranking without being penalized.
1. Think of your visitors
If you wish to rank higher on Google, make sure your website looks appealing to your visitors. Google rewards well-arranged websites with high-quality content and concise information that is easy to find.
Try to look at your site from an outsider’s view and ask yourself whether the information is relevant and presented in an organized, easy-to-find manner. Create a user-friendly interface that guides visitors around your website. That way you make sure they find exactly what they’re looking for. Also, create a mobile version for customers visiting on their smartphones.
2. Quality over quantity
Google’s ranking algorithms are specifically designed to search for high-quality content and to spot pages that offer lots of content with very little value. So, as often in life: less is more. If you are not sure whether your website has quality content or not, take some time to go through it. Shorten texts that are too long or that contain redundant information and get rid of outdated content. This will not only reflect positively on your Google ranking but also on your business as a whole – visitors will appreciate it!
3. Run analyses
It is always helpful to know what your website’s current status is, where it ranks today and whether it has any penalties. This information shows you whether your website should improve in SEO and if so, how much.
Additional data, such as number of visitors that find your website through Google search and ranking of commercial keywords for your site can help you increase the traffic to your online business. There are several online tools that help you analyze your site ranks. For example, Serps.com is a very useful tool that tells you your site’s position.
4. Be careful with advertising
We just mentioned keywords. Google’s ranking algorithms are highly sensitive to the number of keywords, links and ads on websites. As Google’s aim is to ensure high-quality website content, too much advertising will be penalized with lower rankings.
Make sure only absolutely relevant links are included in your content. SEO is an important marketing strategy, but irrelevant or poor-quality links and ads can backfire and produce a negative effect for your website. Find the right tools, such as Google Keyword Planner, and white hat strategies, like guest posting, to integrate keywords and quality backlinks in your content.
5. Seek Google’s attention
Once you’ve cleaned up your website content, you can now present it to the world – that is, to Google and your visitors. The information displayed in the results list is generated from a website’s structural data. This special format makes it easier for Google to extract the necessary information, e.g., the title, a Meta description of the site and the URL.
Something similar also applies to your visitors: the easier they find you, the more likely they are to click onto your website. Make sure that the descriptions provided match the actual content of your website and that any links leading to your platform live up to the customer’s expectations.
Wrapping up
Although Google ultimately has the final word with regards to their search result rankings, there are many ways to improve the search engine’s tough assessment without getting penalties. As long as you adhere to the Webmaster Guidelines, you are free to change your content, add relevant keywords, links and ads that improve your online visibility.
The main thing really is to offer high-quality content in a user-friendly way and to avoid an overload of less relevant material. To achieve this goal, the internet offers a wide range of useful tools that can help you optimize your website. If you wish to be on the safe side and avoid penalties, ask for professional help. With the help of Werbepresse you can minimize the risk of getting a penalty.