What Penalties Affect My Site Rankings?

Google is known for penalizing websites that violate their Webmaster Guidelines. The two common types of penalties include:

  • Manual actions penalties
  • Algorithmic penalties (Re-adjustments).

Technically, re-adjustments (algorithmic) are not entirely penalties. Algorithmic penalties result from a website’s ranking since the algorithm filters the site after identifying a possible manipulation.

The algorithmic filtering is a fully automated part of Google’s ranking algorithm. Google has a set of algorithms and software that detect “manipulations” on your site. The algorithms will then filter your site accordingly. A site owner rarely receives any notification of a change in site ranking due to Google’s algorithmic filtering.

On the other hand, manual actions are human-induced processes. The penalty follows an intensive reviewing process after which the decision is made.