Just when we thought it was safe…
Google has come up with new penalty criterion. Here are 6 quick tips to prevent penalties to website. Make sure you you check Google Webmaster Tools or you ask whoever is managing website to it for you. There are some new criterion for website quality that heretofore weren’t really a problem.
1. Crawler Errors: Check Google Webmaster Tools for 404 errors and 500 server errors. The 404 errors mean Google can’t see the page and the associated links. Losing pages and links is bad for your SEO efforts. The 500 server errors makes it look like there’s no one watching the store. Both should be corrected as soon as possible. Monitor you Webmaster Tools Account every couple of days so you can address any messages as quickly as possible.
2. Blog Spam: You don’t need too many unattended spam replies on your blog to incur a nice manual penalty from Google. Captcha doesn’t really do the trick anymore. Try a FaceBook or Twitter authentication.
4. Duplicate Content: Original, high-quality content is paramount. If your site content isn’t unique hire a writer who understands insurance and have them rewrite it as soon as possible. Want to know if your copy is unique? Copy the url of the page in question to the search bar in Copyscape to see. It’s not 100% but it will give you a good idea as to whether you need a writer. Also look out for duplicate title tags and meta descriptions. Depending upon the frequency of occurrence these can present a real problem for your site
3. Malware: Your site has probably been hacked. You can tell if your site has been infected by malware by checking your Webmaster Tools account, something which, by the way, you should be doing at least twice a week, if not every day. As soon as you see a warning, let your webmaster know so he/she can take immediate action.
5. Page Speed: Ten years ago just having the Internet was a huge advantage, today the speed at which your website renders is critical to your rank. Remember you are always striving to improve rank, authority and reputation. If you are using a content manager like WordPress, make sure your theme is updated. Having the proper CSS and HTML is extremely important. Make sure a professional web developer looks at your site. Also again, and I can’t stress this enough. Go to Google Webmaster and look for crawl errors.
6. Low-Quality Content: Don’t skimp on the writer. Content quality could arguably be number one on this list. Where keywords are located, the ratio of key words to total content and the quality of the content as it relates to the subject matter will contribute to determining the authority, and ultimately, the reputation of your site. Make sure the person writing your site knows the persona you are trying to reach and has a clear understanding of your agency and insurance.
Let us know if you have had penalty issues with your site and how you fixed them.