The vision of penalties that Google imposes on websites can be frightening, especially for newcomers to the topic of SEO. A Google filter or ban unfortunately happens often, so it is definitely worth exploring these issues. All the more so because they can effectively jeopardize a site’s search engine visibility, which means also in access to new customers – and this for any company operating on the Web is a real drama. Read the article and you will learn what a Google filter is and how to check it. You are invited!

What is a Google filter?

The Mountain View giant is keen to ensure that search engine users receive results that include high-quality and content-rich sites. That’s why Google has set standards for websites, regularly updates them (through algorithm changes) and enforces these rules. Penalties from Google are just such a tool for enforcing website compliance. Imposed on websites that deviate from the standards set by the search engine.

Types of penalties imposed by Google

You may encounter the following names:

Algorithmic filter

It is imposed automatically by Google’s algorithm.

Manual or manual filter

It is imposed by a Google employee from the Google Search Quality Team, which is in charge of verifying websites – their compliance with the search engine’s requirements and standards.

Google ban

It results in complete indexing of the site from the search results, it ceases to exist in the search engine. It is imposed for very strong offenses against search engine standards and happens quite rarely.

Web development principles and best practices are available at. Google Search Center (formerly Google for Webmasters). If you want to make sure that a penalty from Google does not threaten your domain, it is worthwhile to familiarize yourself with them and apply them. It is worth it all the more because they help to achieve high positions.

Google filter – how to check?

It depends on what penalty has been imposed on the domain. No matter what kind of penalty it will be – with any, the first motivating signal for action is a sudden drop in position, which usually also means a drop in traffic. This is precisely what is most painfully affecting the owners of the sites affected by the penalty.

How to check if a domain has been subject to a Google filter? In the case of a manual filter you need the Google Search Console tool, it is there under the Search Traffic tab that you will find: Manual Actions. You may see here that no manual anti-spam measures were found on the site.

The second – more negative – option is a message about the manual actions taken and the reason why they were taken. Examples of reasons for a manual penalty include: a site infested with spam by third parties, user-generated spam, unnatural links to your site, unnatural links from your site, little content in addition to little or no value, cloaking and implicit redirects, hidden text or keyword stuffing. For more details, visit Google support on manual actions .

As for the algorithmic filter, the matter is more complicated. You will not get any message from Google. The penalty comes as a result of a change in the algorithm – its updates are not always announced. Algorithmic filter is more difficult to recognize and, unfortunately, but also more difficult to get rid of. Therefore, in order to verify such a penalty, it is necessary to properly continuously monitor the website positions and traffic, preferably relying on the tools provided by Google – Search Console and Google Analytics .

Summary

Verifying the presence of a Google filter is the first step to removing it. As with any activity related to a website and its search engine visibility, it takes knowledge and experience to deal with a Google filter. However, already proper work on the online service and actions in accordance with Google’s recommendations will bring you and your company a lot of benefits. On Google’s support pages you’ll find plenty of information about changes and actions to take on the website – it’s a shame not to take advantage of the instruction coming from the environment in which the website is to be well regarded. If you need support in being effective on Google – I invite you to talk to me and use my services.