Trying to create a successful website or blog can often lead to a very aggressive online strategy, which ultimately can result in a Google penalty. When that happens, it can have a very damaging effect on a website. In some cases, the sites that fall victim to penalties never recover at all.

Getting a Google penalty however is not the end of the world. If you handle the situation properly, then you should be able to get your site back on track in no time at all. Here we will take a look at the best methods for recovering from a Google penalty, and how long you can expect to be penalized for.

Keep Calm And Carry On

The first thing you need to do after receiving a Google penalty is to keep calm and take your time. It is tempting after a penalty to try and get right back on the horse and take aggressive measures to fix your problems. This however can lead to more penalties, some of which can be much more severe. The best thing to do is keep your site running along while you quietly try and deal with the issue that Google has raised. This way, when your site does recover over time, it is able to keep moving along without having to adapt to a new situation.

Check Your Links

Go through your website and find all the links that you have in your content. Then check and see if they are all working okay. If the link has died because the destination no longer exists, or the links lead to spam, then you need to get rid of them. They could well be the cause of your penalization, so it’s best to make sure that your site is completely free of bad links. If you want to prevent anything like this from happening again in the future, then you need to keep track of all the links you use so then you can delete them as soon as they disappear from view.

Keep A Log Of Your Clean-up

If you have picked up a severe penalty and your site has been completely removed from results, then you will need to submit your case to Google in order to be reconsidered in results. In order to be successful at this, you will need to prove that you are doing everything you can in order to clean up your site so then it is completely clean. Keep a log of all the bad links you have removed from your site, and all the instances you have reported for your site link to be removed from spam sites. If you have had issues with plagiarism, keep a log of all the changes you make to your content. As long as you can provide evidence, then your site should get back onto search results soon.

Give Google All Of Your Information

When it comes time to submit your site for reconsideration, then you need to make sure that you are open and honest with Google. The more information you are able to provide for them, the more likely they are to add you back to their search engine results. Basically, try and have an open-door policy with them. Tell them everything that is going on with your website, and try and provide evidence that you are improving your site when you can. The more Google knows about your efforts, the harder it will be for them to turn you away.

Own Up To Your Mistakes

Obviously for your site to have picked up a penalty, you must have made some mistakes along the way. The best thing you can do is tell Google that you did do some things wrong, that you are sorry, and that you have learned from your mistakes. Coming up with excuses or trying to pass the buck will not help your situation at all. Google wants to know above everything else that you are aware of the mistakes you have made and that you know how you are going to fix them in the future. It plays a very big part in their considerations for adding you back to their search engine results, so make sure that you are sincere and you know exactly where you went wrong.

Strictly Follow The Google Guidelines

This is probably an obvious tip, but a valid one all the same. A second Google penalty is very hard to bounce back from, so you need to make sure that you follow the guidelines that Google set right down to the last letter. Make sure that you keep a track of all the updates that Google brings in so then you are not caught out by a change in the guidelines. If you just keep a track of everything, then your site should not have any more worries about penalties.