Google Penalties

In recent months there has been a lot of talk about websites falling down the Google ranks. The question is - was this to do with the latest round of Google algorythmic changes or is this more to do with Google penalties?

Many people suggest the three penalties are:
1. -30 penalty
2. -950 penalty
3. Index Exclusion

Allegedly the -30 penalty affects the whole domain whereas the -950 penalty only affects some specific URLs for some specific keywords only.

The 30 penalty behaved in the following way. A search that would usually show a url from that domain would now show the url on the top of page 4, position #31 precisely [also true for a search on the domain name itself].

The 30 penalty has changed over time so that now a domain name search is not always penalized and the depressed position is not alway at #31, but about 3 or more pages.

The 950 penalty acts in a different way in that a URL which was previously top ranked for a certain search now showing up on one of the last pages of the SERPs. Most of the time this only affects specific searches — on other searches that same URL can still be first page. The low ranking sometimes comes and goes with various new data pushes from Google

Most SEOs would agree that dodgy practices such as keyword stuffing or shady link building practices [BLOOP – BackLink Over Optimization Penalty] would result in such penalties.

BLOOP is based on the belief that too many links in too short a time span and with similar anchor text will result in Google taking note.

Eventually the BLOOP penalty will go away. To avoid it you just need to gradually build up your links.

Perhaps the worst type of penalty is the Index Exclusion penalty or basically a complete ban. This will be given for severe violations such as cloaking and doorway pages. Mass spamming will also result in this type of penalty.


Another kind of penalty that is known to exist is the Index Exclusion penalty or a complete ban, this is a kind of penalty, which when imposed on a site simply throws the site out of the Google index. Index exclusion penalty usually occur with websites that severely violate the quality guidelines of Google and adopt black hat methods such as cloaking and doorway pages.

How to avoid -30 and -950 penalties

• Do not stuff keywords in the page title, description, alt tags and in the content.
• Do not link out to link farms and sites engaged in link manipulation practices.
• Be consistent in building links and vary your link anchors as much as possible.
• Avoid cloaking and doorway pages.
• Build your website keeping the users in mind instead of the search engines.
Also adding to the mix is the unconfirmed Google #6 penalty, unearthed by Aaron Wall, where a site may lose ranking if it is not updated enough.