Easy way to find out if my site is penalized?

[norbiu]

I just read an article about Google penalties and here's something that really had me concerned:

"Something happening one day and maybe lasting for a day to a week is not likely to be a penalty. Something causing your site to lose rankings, reported backlinks, traffic, and conversions over the course of a couple of weeks is a red flag."

Couple of weeks? My problems are almost 2 months old. How do I find out if I have really been penalized or if this is just something temporary?

[tedster]

I would not have any concern for some of the areas on that list. For example, you can ignore Google's backlink data -- it's less dependable than reading tea leaves.

But the core message there is spot on. If you are seeing a traffic loss that has lasted 2 months, then it is time to do some troubleshooting. The cause may not be a penalty. It could be a server configuration problem or a newly introduced html error in your template, even a duplicate content filter. There are lots of possibilities.

To answer your question, there's no easy way to get a definitive "yes, you have the such and such a penalty" verdict. Since many traffic issues are not really coming from a true penalty, even a direct answer from Google (should you be fortunate enough to get such a thing) that you have no penalty would be of little value. You do have a problem if your Google traffic changed drastically for several months.

To focus your investigation, I'd suggest you become familiar with the threads listed in our Google Hot Topics [webmasterworld.com] -- pinned to the top of this forum's index page.

Focus on learning about Supplemental Results, Duplicate issues, and the checklists for dropped rankings. The more historical data you can collect about your traffic before the problem appeared, the better equipped you will be.

[edited by: tedster at 4:00 am (utc) on Feb. 4, 2007]

[Decius]

Is there a place to ask?

... rather than just speculate?

[edited by: Decius at 3:48 am (utc) on Feb. 4, 2007]

[night707]

If you are seeing a traffic loss that has lasted 2 months, then it is time to do some troubleshooting.

troubleshooting reads good. But how would you interprete being cut off 100% from Google traffic for 5 months and then back to regular for 7 months in 2005 and in 2006.

And this without any changes to tags, content, server settings etc. and for a large content site which has been on many No. 1 Google pages since 5 years now.

[tedster]

I can't read that one. But if the site were my responsibility I would open up a Webmaster Tools account right away, if none exists. No sitemap, just open the account to authenticate my ownership and establish a trusted communication channel with Google.

Then if anything like that happens again I would use the reinclusion request form within the account and send those historical details -- concisely and politely asking for help getting reincluded.

[norbiu]

I wish Webmaster Tools could give more info about possible mistakes I am making that could harm my rankings.

Thanks tedster I will check out Hot Topics.

[glengara]

I find you can get a pretty good indication of a possible penalty by doing an info:search and looking carefully at what's returned.

For example, no results for "similar pages" for a site that obviously has both incoming and outgoing links would point to a possible linkage problem, similarly 000s of results for "contains the term" but comparatively few for "links to" would suggest a link quality problem.

G has always been reluctant to describe their "filters" as penalties, they'll confirm a ban but that's about it, and I don't think Webmasters Tools will change that

[centime]

have you done the obvious thing an compared your keyword phrase rankings before an after the slow down

did the slowdown happen gradually , perhaps without you noticing the trend

was there a redesign of the site or major re jig of the content,

Perhaps your previous fortunes depended on some very high value inbound links whose value has been devalued by google

just a few thoughts

[tedster]

Good points - reminds me of this discussion:

Keeping a Changelog - for when Google (or any) trouble strikes [webmasterworld.com]