Google’s Search Advocate, John Mueller, responds to a question about making honest mistakes in SEO and whether websites are penalized for inadvertently breaking Google’s rules.
This is covered in the most recent episode of the Ask Googlebot Series on YouTube. Mueller specifically addresses the following question:
“How Google Reacts to Honest Mistakes”
On the Internet, there is a wealth of SEO knowledge. It is not always up to date or accurate.
People who are new to SEO are prone to making mistakes that could result in the ever-watchful eye of Google swooping down with a manual action and a rank drop.
Mueller begins by stating that he can only speak about Google’s webmaster guidelines and webspam policies. It’s easy for people to fall into bad habits unintentionally as a result of well-meaning advice from a friend or incorrect information found online.
Google recognizes that mistakes do occur
Mueller stated that no one is perfect when it comes to SEO, and the algorithm attempts to understand this. If Googlebot encounters a problem while crawling your site, it will isolate and ignore it.
Instead, Google will focus on the parts of your site where the SEO adheres to the guidelines and policies.
This is a good thing for inexperienced SEOs who want to rank their site but don’t understand the complexities. SEO is an art as well as a science, and Google understands that not everyone is a cross between Van Gogh and Einstein.
What If a Manual Penalty Is Imposed?
While Google makes every effort to ignore minor violations of the guidelines and policies, it cannot give everyone a pass. If the problem is severe or worsens over time, Google takes manual action against the site.
Every website should be linked to Google Search Console for a variety of reasons, including learning about manual actions. A manual action is a significant rank drop or de-listing that occurs as a result of serious violations of Google’s guidelines and policies.
Mueller claims that the manual action is only temporary. If the site resolves the issues caused by the manual action, they can request a reconsideration request from Google. Google rechecks the site to ensure that all issues have been resolved and removes the manual action, resulting in your rank being restored.
Mueller concludes the video by saying that the company tries to handle mistakes thoughtfully and that they don’t have to affect your Google search rankings indefinitely.
Power comes from knowledge
Understanding what Google wants from the start is the best way to avoid mistakes. Before making changes to your website, review the Google webmaster guidelines.
Learn more from SEO.
