Google Penalties – What Do You Do!
For many of you internet marketers, you know that keyword tracking is an important part of your marketing campaign and SEO roller coaster ride. Tracking your rankings plays a big role in the life of an SEO specialist, but lets say one day you come in and check your rankings, and there is a sudden drop! You were on the first page with a rank of 3 – 5 on most of your terms and now your down on the 2nd or even 3rd page.
Most will instantly believe they have been penalized, and start to wonder what their boss is going to think. (Which is of course a very nice feeling, right… lol) – Your boss may wonder, what the !#%& happened to our rankings, what did you do for us to deserve a penalty, and so on. First off, don’t instantly blame it on a penalty from Google. There are several reasons why your site may have instantly fluctuated in the SERPS.
Double check your keywords and their ranking, see if it was just a few that dropped, and not most. Maybe it could be an indexing issue, this happens at times. Give it a week, and you could be back in business. Double check your traffic, see if it was just a PR drop and not a sudden change in traffic. Just be a little detective and see if you can pin point the source of your rank demise.
If you are certain that the Google gods have thrown a penalty your way, and you have pin pointed what it is for, fix it asap. Be honest with Google and your site. Don’t play black hat, these guys are smart. Also your penalty may be very minor if this is a first offense. Once you have fixed the issue, within a few months you could be right back to where you were. If you have been penalized before with a separate site, Google probably knows this and has penalized your further. The Google gods are very good at knowing how you are affiliate with other websites, its not worth testing their power, so to speak 
In short, if you get a ranking drop, and it looks dramatic, don’t panic! Play detective, fix the problem, be honest, and don’t go about doing it again. Google is like an online court system, our first offense may have a minor consequence, so it’s not worth it to go for the 2nd. – Utah SEO Pros
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