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Running a website or blog isn’t easy, there are many challenges. One of our main challenge is to rank higher without getting penalized by Google. It’s a big challenge and it should be done precisely without breaking any Google’s rule. Many things can go wrong; Google can even make our site disappear from their Search Engine, and we can’t even find what went wrong.
Google is our boss, and we have to obey its rules and guidelines. Recovering a website from Google penalty is a tough task, it might take some months with quite a lot of effort. So as they say — prevention is better than cure; we should take care of our websites from getting a Google penalty.
[Image: David/freedigitalphotos.net]
So today I’m going to share some simple methods you can follow in order to avoid getting penalized by Google.
Write Reader-Engagement Articles
Have you ever noticed that the articles which had more comments got higher rankings in search engine than the articles which has low comments? I did. Here the rule is simple; search engines follow people. There is no doubt that Google takes blog comments into the equation. According to Google, they consider more than 200 signals to rank a web page; blog comments are certainly one of them. The more comments you get the more valuable your content is in the eyes of search engines.
So try to write reader-engagement articles; write in a conversational tone, you can easily attract more comments. Another way to attract more comments is by connecting with other bloggers; comment on their blogs, they will comment on your blog. Also, don’t forget to reply to your comments; just check out Neil Patel from QuickSprout, he replies to every comment on his blog even though he’s a quite busy person.
Even a low quality blog post with higher comments can get good rankings; I’m not saying that you can reach front page of Google with just comments, it requires other elements like backlinks, social media signals, etc. However, the blog posts with more comments are certainly considered as quality posts. Also, if your previous blog post has more comments, more people are likely to comment on your new post.
If your blog post consists of more comments, your site is unlikely to get penalized by Google, because it’ll consider it as user-friendly.
Tips to get reader-engagement on your blog
- Write in a conversational tone: Write in a conversational tone, and use ‘you’ and ‘I’ in your posts. This will help you to connect with readers.
- Ask questions in articles: Another way to get more comments is to ask questions at the end of your posts.
- Comment on other blogs: Trust me, the audience arrives from search engines barely leave a comment on your blog. So engage with fellow bloggers and comment on their blogs, they’ll comment on your blogs.
Publish Long Articles
It’s very unlikely that Google punishes sites with In-depth or long articles. Usually Google considers long articles as a quality content. As mentioned in Google webmaster blog; they don’t like thin articles that add no value to the audience. Thin article means blog posts that contain just 300-400 words and contents with no valuable information. Initially, i used to write just 500 word article, but now i try to aim 700-1000 words every time.
You might ask; there are blogs like TechCrunch and Labnol.org which publish short articles, yet Google won’t punish them. . . Yes, they do publish short articles, but we can’t compare our websites with them because they’re known as authority sites in the Google’s eyes.
Google algorithms like Panda will punish websites with thin contents, so concentrate on writing long and In-depth contents that provides relevant information. Do little research before writing; it’ll help you to write in-depth quality articles. Always try to add more information so that visitors don’t have to refer another site.
Tips to write long Contents
- Read more than you write: It’s almost impossible to write quality contents without reading; build a habit of reading on a daily basis, and then you’ll see the difference. While reading keep a notepad and list out the valuable points, it’ll help you while writing new posts.
- Do research every time: A blogger’s work is to provide relevant information on a particular niche; if you do a bit of research every time, you can easily provide long in-depth information.
Avoid doing Black-hat stuffs
Nowadays, almost everyone is trying some kind of black-hat methods, sometimes it works quite well. But if you want to build a website for long run and don’t want to get penalized by Google, then you shouldn’t try any black-hat methods.
You should avoid black-hat methods like; buying links, exchanging links, coping content, Keyword stuffing, overuse of anchor text, Over-optimization, overusing H1 tag, getting links from malicious websites, or any other tricks that try to manipulate Google. Google is smart; and they have several automatic algorithms to detect your black-hat activities.
You can certainly do black-hat stuffs for your niche websites. But I genuinely don’t like these niche websites, because its only purpose is money. Investing your time and energy for a short-term project is not good in my opinion.
So how to survive without doing black-hat stuffs?
Even though it is getting harder to rank websites without using black-hat methods, it’s still possible to get desired results using white-hat techniques. There are several effective ways like; guest blogging, Blog Commenting and gaining natural links.
- Guest Blogging: Even though Matt cutts recently announced guest blogging for SEO is dead, it isn’t. Guest blogging is still the best way to build links; SEO expert Neil Patel has widely explained it. But only write quality guest posts on authority blogs.
- Blog Commenting: Blog commenting is the safest way to build links. You can comment as much as you want on dofollow blogs to get more links. Even though Google says they don’t value nofollow links, they are still good.
Engage More on Social Media
Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team, recently said that Google doesn’t consider social signals into the account in their algorithm system. Don’t take his words seriously, because he’s completely lying.
It is already proven from many case studies that the web pages with more social shares and likes are ranked higher than those pages with low social shares. It’s not a secret that Google takes social signals into the account to find out which page is valuable and user-friendly. And Google uses social signals to detect viral news or contents.
If your site has good social engagement, you’re unlikely to get penalized by Google. So concentrate on getting more social likes and shares.
Tips to get more Social Shares and likes
- Write interesting posts: Writing quality, interesting posts are the best way to get more social likes and shares; if people like your posts, they’ll definitely share it.
- Engage more on social media: Use popular social networks like; Facebook, Twitter, Google plus and LinkedIn. Google plus is very important, implement Google Authorship to your blog.
- Share other’s posts: another trick to get more social shares is, by sharing other people’s work; by doing this they will start liking you and will return the favor.
- Use Tools like JustRetweet: This is the best tool to get more social shares and likes. If you haven’t joined it yet; join now and you’ll realize the advantage of it.
- Join Blogging Communities: Join blogging communities like; Blogengage, Dosplash, Kingged etc. Engage with members and share each others content.
Conclusion
Getting a Google penalty is one of the worst thing that can happen to your website, and recovering from it isn’t easy. It might take some weeks to months. So follow these simple methods to avoid your website getting penalized by Google.