Types of Google Slaps
With several waves of Google Slaps taking place since 2006, many website owners have become afraid of getting slapped. Most assume that their accounts will immediately be disabled. However, there are different actions undertaken by Google before an account gets put out of action. In fact, many websites get affected by a slap without even being fully aware of it. For those who are not sure whether or not they have had their websites slapped, here are some of the common penalties given by Google.
Keyword Slap
Google pays close attention to the search terms that websites use in order to bring in traffic and increase rankings. Many website owners and advertisers do not use the proper keywords. In many cases, keywords are not targeted. As a result, a low click through rate is produced compared to others. User tends to skip websites and ignore advertisements being put out. Another possibility is that the keywords used have no relevance to the landing page. When these things happen, Google takes action by increasing the amount paid for the keywords. Instead of making advertisers pay the minimum bid, they raise the price making it costly to advertise.
Domain Slap
A harder slap from Google can involve more than an increase in the minimum bid price of keywords. In this case, domains with low quality scores (1 out of 10) usually receive this kind of penalty. A common cause for low quality scores is content which is not unique or useful, slow loading, squeeze pages, etc. Google gives the site or certain pages are given a time out and do not show up when searched for with specific keywords on Google, although the website remains to be indexed. This puts the website in a sandbox which will prevent it from achieving fast ranking on the internet. A holding period of anywhere from 30-120 days is given to websites with this penalty.
Permanent Ban
The worst penalty or slap that Google can give a website is a permanent ban. In this case a website gets completely de-indexed from the database of Google. Many times, websites which are given this penalty have ignored all other previous warnings or slaps from Google. Many website owners do not actually fix the problems in their websites but just find a way around it. As a result, Google keeps detecting the same problems and bans the website. In such cases it may take more than just a bit of tweaking to get your site back into Google.
Websites or advertisers which have received less severe slaps often have a good chance for recovery since the penalties given are not permanent. It may take a few months but Google eventually lifts the penalties which it gives. Once issues or violations have been fixed then websites have a chance of moving up in rank and bidding for cheaper keywords once again. In more severe cases, a reconsideration request may be sent to Google so they can review the case. If the matter at hand involves a manual penalty that has been given out, then the issue can be resolved after a website complies with regulations. However, if the penalty is brought about automatically due to algorithm then websites will need to wait for numbers to change before they can recover from the slap.
