Has your web site been penalized for SEO in Livermore? The first thing you will need to know in order to recover from common penalties that relate to search engine optimization (SEO) for your web site is to know what those penalties are and which mistakes caused them to be implemented. There are four basic categories into which these mistakes fall: links, content, layout, and excess optimization (you may not have realized that there is a point at which one has optimized too much!).

It used to be that the more links a site had, regardless of their origin, would increase the ranking of a site. However, Google changed that and it became detrimental to use low quality links once the Penguin update rolled out. The only way that links can help your site now is if they are real sites, with real quality related content that are linking to you because the content relates and they feel you are offering quality content.

If you are using Google’s Webmaster Tools, it will let you know if you have a penalty due to improper links, but if you are not, you may be able to tell if links are an issue by checking your analytics. If your search traffic changed drastically on a specific day, you can check the refresh dates for the Penguin algorithm and see if they correlate. If so, that is likely an issue.

If links are causing a problem, you will have to determine which site’s links are the problems. You will want to try to get the site’s owner to remove them. If you cannot get them removed, Google has a tool that allows you to disavow the sites, thus halting their detrimental effect on your ranking.

Quality content is, of course, the most valuable part of your site and the one that most greatly affects your search engine ranking. Because so many sites appeared that had limited content with very little worth, the Panda algorithm was developed to keep these low quality sites from achieving a top ranking. Therefore, if your site has content that is shallow, duplicate, redundant, riddled with errors, or unsubstantial, then your site will be subject to a drop in ranking.
Figuring this out is similar to the previous problem, except that you will need to check the Panda update dates for correlations. If this is, indeed, the cause for your lessened rank, the best (and perhaps only) way to fix it is to make sure that all content on your site is quality and offers value.

Layout problems can be simple to discover. Start by visiting your site with various common screen resolutions. See what shows by default (without scrolling). This is the first information that the search engine will ‘see’ also, and the place where there should be few, if any, ads. Too many ads anywhere will penalize your site, but more so if the ads are placed at the top.

Additionally, if you use frames, Flash, or JavaScript primarily on your site, this will make it more difficult for the search engines to find your content. Flash and JavaScript can effectively hide your content completely, so be sure you include plenty of quality text content.

Over-optimization is a bit trickier. One form of this is keyword stuffing – if you are using your keyword too many times, it becomes detrimental. The exact amount is difficult to determine, but a good plan is to use your keywords naturally, once near the beginning, once near the end, and once or twice in the middle of your content when using SEO on Livermore web sites. As long as your optimization is making it easier or better for your visitors, your ranking should not be affected. It is when your optimization makes the user experience more difficult or less pleasant that ranking will be lessened.

The best way to make sure your SEO efforts are not negatively affected by updates to Google’s algorithms is to regularly revisit your SEO in Livermore strategies to be sure that you will not be penalized.