With Google implementing stringent rule after stringent rule via its Panda and Penguin algorithms, more and more webmasters are finding themselves at the receiving end of a Google Penalty. If there’s one thing that a website owner should avoid as much as possible, it’s a Google Penalty, because it will most certainly have a negative impact on any given site’s search rankings. And that, of course, means your business will be severely affected.

If you want to avoid a Google Penalty, here are ways to help you do just that.

Publish only unique and quality content

Over the years, sites with duplicate, copied, or simply low-quality content have lorded it over Google search rankings. With Google’s algorithm updates, that is no longer the case. There is now an emphasis on unique and quality content, and sites that carry such content are likely to get rewarded by Google with higher rankings. Consequently, unique and quality content also makes it less likely that you’ll be penalised by Google. By creating unique and relevant content, you will be offering your visitors something that they’ll be truly interested in, and that would make Google happy.

Avoid keyword stuffing

Another tactic that has allowed black hat SEOs to raise their websites’ Google rankings in the past is keyword stuffing, which is basically filling your content with repetitive keywords. Today, that will get you nothing but a Google Penalty. So avoid keyword stuffing in your content, title tags and descriptions, and use relevant keywords strategically and sparingly instead.

Come up with quality new pages

When you create new pages that contain relevant information about your business and the products and services that you have to offer, you are, in effect, providing your audience with more unique content, which will always be a plus for Google. You can come up with specific product pages or write a quality blog for your site. As long as you don’t create pages with duplicate content just so you can optimise keywords or simply make your site seem bigger, you’ll be safe from a Google Penalty.

Guest blog with care

Guest blogging has always been a great way of establishing yourself as an authority on a particular niche as well as expanding your blog’s reach and influence. However, it has also become a source of problems and Google Penalties for countless webmasters. That’s because some of the incoming links that you get from guest blogging are either out of place, or simply not relevant to your audience. Google will see those links as spammy, and that could get your site penalised. So if you have to guest blog, the content you’re creating should be very relevant to the blog that’s hosting your post and that it won’t lead to spammy links.

Never buy links

Link building is an essential component of any online marketing strategy. As long as those links got there naturally and are of interest to readers, you’ll be fine. However, many webmasters have long been buying links to get their brands more exposure and their site more traffic. That may have worked in the past, but these days, getting caught buying or selling links or participating in reciprocal link schemes means an instant Google Penalty.

Conduct a link audit

You can follow Google’s webmaster guidelines to the letter today and onwards, but still get penalised because the pages and content you have created in the past contain spammy or unnatural links. So it would be in your best interest to conduct a link audit and remove spammy or unnatural links to any pages on your site. If those links come from an external site, politely ask the webmasters of those sites to remove the link.

Don’t even think about tricking Google

For years, black hat SEOs have had a field day manipulating Google search results. The Panda and Penguin algorithm updates, however, have made it extremely difficult to trick Google. Link farms, blog spam, comment spam, cloaking, cybersquatting, spam blog or splogs, cookie stuffing, and other blackhat SEO tactics are meant to trick Google, and Google wouldn’t be too happy once you’re caught using them.

While it’s possible to recover from a Google Penalty, you would do well to make sure you will never receive one ever again. Only honest, truthful, and white hat techniques will help you avoid a Google Penalty, and help you continue enjoying good rankings on Google.