An Introduction Google’s Minus 30 Penalty – Part 1
Ah, the Google Minus 30 Penalty. This penalty came about in the mid to late part of 2007. Also known as the “4 pages back penalty” is not a permanent penalty, but it can cause serious problems and cost websites thousands of dollars, not to mention a whole lot of traffic. It usually results in your website dropping 30 spots lower in Google’s index.
The penalty is mostly a slap on the wrist (although it can be cudgel) to websites who offer a lot of good but also have some black hat or grey hat techniques that send up a red flag to Google. Some examples of techniques that might cause the problem include:
- Excessive HTTP errors, such as endless 301 redirects
- Too many affiliate links
- Pages inaccessible to Google Robot (e.g. due to cookies needing to be set)
- Hidden text
- Excessive URL parameters
- Bad or non-existent
meta data, title, and/or page Description - Duplicate content problems
- Keyword spamming
There are likely others, but the ones above can be definitively checked through Google Webmaster Tools, which we will cover in a later installment.
If your site has been a victim of this penalty, never fear. There are ways to recover by taking a good, realistic look at your site and SEO techniques as a webmaster and identifying existing problems. Visit part 2 of our Google Minus 30 Penalty series to find out how to identify your problems and see if you really have this penalty.
The Google Minus 30 Penalty – 5 Ways to Identify the Problem – Part 2
