Diagnosing SEO penalties: 10 points for understanding and taking action

Through our SEO Agency Optimize 360

Diagnosis of penalties

---

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a crucial element in increasing the visibility and reputation of a website. website.

However, search engines such as Google sometimes decide to penalise certain practices or sites that do not meet their quality criteria.

In this article, we'll look at what an SEO penalty diagnosis is and how to use it to optimise your website.

1. What is an SEO penalty?

An SEO penalty is a penalties imposed by search engines to a website that does not comply with their recommendations or that uses techniques considered to be unethical or 'black hat'. These sanctions can take the form of a sharp drop in search result positions, or even total downgrading of the site.

2. Types of SEO penalties

There are two main categories of SEO penalties:

1. The manual penaltieswhich are assigned directly by Google's anti-spam team after verification that a breach of the guidelines has occurred.
2. The algorithmic penaltiesThese are applied automatically when the search engine detects infringements linked, for example, to the creation of artificial links, duplicate content or over-optimisation of a website.

3. Reasons why a site may be penalised

There are many causes of SEO penalties, but they are mainly linked to non-compliance with search engine guidelines. The main offences include :

• Duplicate content, which consists of copying and pasting text from another site without authorisation.
• Buying artificial links to manipulate PageRank and cheat in the search results.
• Over-optimisation of pages, in the form of excessive use of keywords or too high a density.
• The use of 'black hat' techniques, such as cloaking or link spam.

4. How can you tell if your site has been penalised?

To check whether a website has received a penalty, we need to look at a few indicators such as :

• A significant and sudden drop in organic traffic.
• A significant drop in positions in the search results for certain key words.
• A warning message in the Google Search Console indicating a manual action or a problem detected.

5. When should an SEO penalty diagnosis be carried out?

An SEO penalty diagnosis is necessary when a site suffers a drop in traffic or visibility for which there is no logical explanation. It can also be a preventive measure, to check compliance with the guidelines and anticipate possible penalties.

6. Tools available for carrying out a diagnosis

There are several tools available for diagnosing SEO penalties:

• Google Search Consolewhich detects manual penalties and provides information on the general health of the site.
• From SEO audit toolsas SEMRush, Moz or Ahrefswhich help to identify technical or on-page problems that may lead to an algorithmic penalty.
• From analysis software backlinkssuch as MajesticSEO or Monitor Backlinks, to identify artificial or toxic links that could lead to penalties.

7. Penalty diagnosis: study of on-page criteria

As part of a diagnosis, it is essential to study the site's on-page criteria, i.e. the elements directly linked to the content and structure of the pages:

• Analysis of duplicate content and textual relevance.
• Examination of keyword density and distribution.
• Checking tags HTML (title, meta description, H1...).
• Audit of the site's architecture and ergonomics.

8. Penalty diagnosis: study of off-page criteria

The diagnosis must also cover off-page criteria, i.e. elements external to the site that can influence its referencing:

• Analysis of backlink profile (quality, quantity, diversity).
• Verification of the possible use of netlinking "Black hat" (buying links, networking sites, etc.).
• Study of mentions and shares on social networks.

9. Best practices for avoiding SEO penalties

To prevent penalties and ensure sustainable SEO, it is advisable to follow a few good SEO practices:

• Producing original, unique, high-quality contentregularly updated.
• Optimising HTML tags and keyword density while maintaining a natural approach.
• Set up a ethical netlinking strategybased on the creation of natural links and the diversity of sources.
• Respect the search engine guidelines and ban black hat techniques.

Bonus: the Google Disavow Tool

If, after carrying out an SEO penalty diagnosis, you have identified toxic links pointing to your site, Google offers a tool to disavow them: the Google Disavow Tool.

This tells the search engine that these links should not be taken into account when evaluating your PageRank. However, this step should be used with caution and only after you have tried to remove these links manually.