Your website can be penalized for a number of different reasons, and when this happens, there can be some serious and long-term effects for both a website and the business that relies on this site. In fact, if your business’ website is penalized and you and your business count on your website to reach out to potential new customers and clients, the results can ultimately be crippling to your business’ profits.
While the notion of search engine penalties can be a source of anxiety and frustration, the good news is that, by being aware of what these penalties are and how they work – and by working with the experienced professionals at Epic Web Results:
- You can minimize, if not entirely eliminate, the chances that your business’ website will be penalized by search engines.
- You can successfully recover and once again be ranked well in search engines if you have received such penalties in the past.
How Algo Penalties Work
Algo penalties – short for algorithm penalties – are search engine penalties that, in general, are automatically handed out to websites when SEO (search engine optimization) factors don’t comply with an engine’s algorithms. Algorithms, in basic terms, are complex formulas used by search engines to determine website rankings. So, if a website violates the SEO elements that algorithms require to rank them, that site can be penalized and lose its ranking.
It’s important to point out that:
- Website owners will generally not directly be contacted and informed if or when their website has received an algorithm penalty.
- As a result, it’s common that other factors that may affect a site’s rankings are confused for algo penalties.
Factors That Can Be Mistaken for Algorithm Penalties
Some examples of factors that are often mistaken for algo penalties because they can affect websites’ rankings include (but are not limited to):
- Algorithm updates – The algorithms used to rank websites are commonly updated by search engine administrators (take, for example, Panda or GooPLA), and changes to these algorithms tend to affect how websites are ranked once the changes go into effect. If Google or another search engine has recently announced an algorithm update and your website’s ranking in search engines drops shortly thereafter, it’s very likely that the algorithm update – not an algo penalty – was the cause in the drop.
- Filters – As with algorithm updates, changes to filters can affect websites’ rankings and can be mistaken for algo penalties. One way to check if filters (and not penalties) are affecting a site’s ranking is to see if sites similar to yours (i.e., competitor sites) have also dropped in search engines.
Check out the upcoming second part of this blog for additional important info about search engine penalties.
Effective Legal Marketing Solutions at Epic Web Results
At Epic Web Results, our skilled industry professionals are up to date with the latest advances in SEO best practices, and we are highly adept at designing and maintaining optimized websites that will soar to the top of search engines. Some of our specific services include website design (including for mobile devices), link building, developing strategies based on website analytics, rolling out social media marketing strategies, etc.
Our extensive experience developing the best possible online results for our Clients means that we consistently provide a variety of cost-effective online legal marketing solutions that can ultimately help grow our Clients’ businesses. Our goal is to provide your business or firm with aggressive, effective legal marketing solutions that will help attract potential new clients while continuing to engage existing clients. To learn more about what we do at Epic Web Results, please do not hesitate to email us or call us at (800) 501-9724.
