Various types of are penalties are levied when the built in filters of Google detect violations of the Google webmaster guidelines and are aimed at maintaining the quality of the search engine’s results. One cannot blame Google for trying to maintain the quality of its services even if it takes strict action for that. The search engine regularly takes steps to punish websites that are not following the set rules or spammers that are using unethical means to boost the rankings of their websites.

What is Google Minus-60 Penalty?
One of the most dreaded penalties levied is the Google minus -60 penalty that pushes the ranking of a concerned page to number six, a position which has low chances of being randomly clicked.. Since Google rankings play a big role in attracting more and more traffic flow to a website, this type of a penalty can play havoc with the business of the website owner. So if you find that your page rankings have been pushed down, you need to recheck your website’s configuration and linking strategy.

Google Minus -60 penalty is probably an automated one that triggers due to maybe excessive interlinking of various sites posted on the same server. Interlinking of sites hosted on different servers is unlikely to be a problem and thus there are little chances of attracting a Google penalty in such a case.

How to Avoid Google Minus -60 Penalty?
To ensure a continued good ranking for your webpage you should concentrate on your linking strategy. In case of a lower rating, you should rethink and review your strategy and search for ways to improve it. The ranking of your website may also change in response to a change in the algorithm used by Google’s server for listing all the web pages. This problem may be rectified by talking to Google officials. However, if that is not possible one should check with webmaster tools which will help you to recheck your website’s configuration and suggest the necessary changes

You can also use a penalty checker to confirm whether your website or page has been penalized. And once you are sure of the levy of the Google Minus -60 penalty, you need to identify design faults or contents that have led to this reduced ranking and take corrective steps. Such penalties can also be avoided by regularly updating your website.

However, many a times Google Minus -60 penalty is wrongly blamed for reduced ratings of a website. Excessive usage of a particular keyword or SERP (search) updates can also result in the change in rankings of various websites with some emerging as winners and others losing.

Google Minus-30 Penalty and Other Types of Punishment
Google acts like a disciplinary body when it implements a variety of punishments that include penalties, loss of page rank and a banning of a website. These penalties can be temporary or permanent depending on the type of offence of a website. While a Google Minus-30 Penalty may mean your page rank may go down by 3 pages or 30 positions, a Google Minus-60 penalty may mean downgrading of your page rank by six pages or 60 positions.

Do We Really Need Google Penalties?
Google rankings play a major role in today’s business and are a major source of information for almost all the internet users. So it becomes very important for the search engine to maintain quality and provide authentic results. Thus one cannot blame Google for taking disciplinary action against websites that provide inadequate or in appropriate content in a bid to attract greater traffic.

While replying to a Google Groups discussion on penalties, Google’s Matt Cutt had mentioned that usage of tactics like paid links in various templates can have negative influence on a website’s rankings especially when such links are identified. Although sponsoring a template related to your industry may make sense in some cases, its misuse by spammers is not good, Cutt had said.

So whenever you feel that you have been punished through a Google minus-30 penalty or loss of page rank or SERP (Search Engine Result Placements) you should review your website’s linking strategy. You need to check whether any of the links is proving to be counter productive or spam related and thus affecting the reputation of your website. All such links need to be deleted and than the revised website page should be sent to Google with a reconsideration request. You can also avoid the various forms of punishment meted out by Google by adhering to its webmaster guidelines and using ethical means to promote your website.

Impact of Google minus-30 Penalty and Other Forms of Punishment
Google penalties including the Google minus-30 penalty may vary in length. While the minor penalties may last from one to three months, the severe types of punishment like banning from the Google Index may be permanent. Similarly the impact of various penalties varies depending on the harshness of the penalty.

However, you can get your website back to your original rankings by taking corrective action and getting back to Google with the revised version.

You can avoid being penalized by Google by following the webmaster guidelines and avoiding use of unnecessary links which can be used by spammers. Also in many cases, the downward ranking may not be due to a penalty but a result of wrong or inadequate keyword usage.

Here at SEOXprt.com, we analyze data from millions of domains and thousands of keywords / keyword phrases. Changes are tracked and patterns are evaluated. Ever since the Google Farmer update was released, we have been continuously striving to learn how websites (and which) were impacted by the Google Farmer update.

Here are some of the more interesting results.

Some have called this change as the ‘anti-Media’ update. As a result, many websites are making themselves out to be ‘anti-on demand media sites’. One website in particular, eHow.com, which was poised to be one of the worst affected, has actually experienced a spurt in visibility – almost a 14% increase in visibility.

Another website that has benefited a lot from the Google change in algorithm is wikihow.com. Although some may contend that wikihow is a classic example of a content farm (when compared to Wikipedia), the website has experienced 80% increase in visibility. A sizeable increase indeed.

Yahoo! Answers was another beneficiary with a 30% spurt in visibility. In fact, Yahoo! Answers fared much better than similar sites like answers.com and answerbag.com. Answerbag.com slipped by almost 60%.

Amazingly, ezine was affected but not for all keywords. For certain keywords, Ezine still features at the top of search engine listings.

Unfortunately, it seems that a few quality websites too have been hit by the update even when they have great, useful content.

Many webmasters report getting more traffic to some of their websites while others have been affected adversely. Suite101 is among those adversely impacted by the update, which is something of a surprise considering they do have certain quality control measures on their articles and the content is generally useful. Other websites like associatedcontent and articlebase have also been impacted, though not to the same extent.

In terms of absolute visibility, some of the biggest losers include answerbag, answers, blippr, hubpages, about, mahalo, wisegeek, suite101, ezinearticles and freedownload.com, among other websites. Those who gained in terms of absolute visibility include wikihow, Yahoo Answers, eHow, howstuffworks and facebook.com. News portals like msn.com have come through as winners.

As you can see, it is difficult to categorize the losers and winners on any particular criteria at the moment. However, one can say that along with questionable content, Google has also taken into account factors like visit duration, bounce rates and social reach. Therefore, the algorithm is not that easily calibrated.

So, what are the numbers? How many websites have been affected?

An anonymous poll conducted just 5 days after Google’s Farmer Update states that approximately 40% of websites were affected by the update. The rest either experienced a spurt in traffic or experienced status quo.

For more specific information, get in touch with SEO Expert – Search Engine Optimization Company.

Your webmaster says that your website is getting a very large volume of hits; however, the actual volume of consumers who contact you for business is far smaller. Additionally, you receive a large number of calls from countries that you are not servicing. Some of these calls are from consumers who would like to enjoy the same service, but, a majority of these calls are nothing more than pesky sales calls from people who want to sell their services to you. Soon, you realize:

1. Your web analytics is giving you a skewed picture because a large volume of people visiting your website are not coming to buy steel mailboxes after all.

2. You are wasting precious time and resources fielding queries from areas you do not service.

3. Many companies from around the world are calling you up so that they can sell to you – and they are getting your contact information from your website.

So, how can you prevent these unfortunate yet money depleting fallouts?

One of the easiest and most effective options for any online business that services a limited geographical area is to ban access to its website from countries that are not serviced.

The benefits of doing so are easily discernible:

- Research shows that most websites get more than 10-20% of their traffic from outside key service areas. By banning certain countries, you could eliminate traffic from outside service areas. Going back to our example, you could ensure that only visitors from the US and Canada access your website.

- You can significantly reduce the number of unsolicited calls and form submissions from say countries like China, India and Africa.

- Most importantly, once the ban is implemented, you could get an accurate picture of your website’s performance within the targeted market areas, that is, US and Canada as per the example. In this way, you can ensure that your website acts as a super-efficient sales funnel for your business. You also get to monitor the traffic as well as conversions, making it possible for you to adjust your marketing strategies and get immediate response from your target.

How is it possible to ban certain countries from your website? Does the ‘World Wide Web’ allow that?

Fortunately, there is a way. Websites are identified through a unique IP address. This IP address is different for different countries. Therefore, countries may be blocked using their IP addresses. So, if a visitor from a banned country tried to access the website, they would be redirected to a page with a message. It’s as simple as that.

But, before you go ahead and ban a country, you must find out if your web based business actually benefits from banning a country to your website? The following list should help you decide:

- Is your business serving a limited service area?

- What is the volume of hits coming from areas outside your key service area?

- Is this traffic draining your resources? If so, in what way?

The answers can help you make an informed decision.

According to Google’s Amit Singhal and Matt Cutts, this recent change in their algorithm impacts up to 11.8% of query results.

It must be remembered that Google makes slight changes to its algorithm from time to time and many of the changes have little impact. However, this is a significant change and 12% is a huge number.

Although Google estimates that the change has impacted 12% of its results forever, what is the ground reality? Has this change really caused an upheaval on Ground Zero? It would seem so.

According to the Online Publishers Association, Google’s Farmer Update could change business revenue to the tune of $1 billion. A poll conducted within a week of the update showed that 40% of the websites polled experienced a decrease in Google traffic, 25% had the same volume of traffic and 18% reported more Google traffic while the rest were unsure of the impact.

A number of popular websites like Mahalo (which was hit the hardest) and eHow did admit that they had been hit. Websites like Buzzillions added that, “while we respect Google’s right to make changes, we do not believe that the new experience is better for the users”.

However, Google is not surprised at the low pitched protests making their way hotly from different parts of the web. Google has been targeting content farms and the like for a while and changes were in the horizon since January.

According to Google, the pinch would be felt by those websites that featured low quality content, like content farms. (For Google, the definition of Content Farms is any website that features low quality content). The main problem that is faced by websites that feature low quality content is that little effort ever goes into researching and providing high quality content. Therefore, users get little value from such content although they feature at the top of listings. Since the content is of little value, it has no right to be there – that is what Google believes!

Therefore, if a website is badly hit by the Farmer Update, all they have to do was replace current content with high quality content and wait for Google to notice this change. That is what it might look on paper. However, the unfortunate reality for most websites hit by the changed algorithm is that their ratings may not recover in the short term despite their best attempts. Once low quality content sites have been weeded out, it will take time and effort for other websites to find their right rankings.

When all is said and done, it seems that Google has only been partially successful in its endeavor. A large number of high quality websites could also be hit by the new algorithm. Also, many search engine optimization company have contrasting opinions and range of reactions about the latest change. As one web visitor said, “Even after the update, some of the first page results are full of crud”. Makes one wonder whether Google has missed its target this time and whether the 12% affected are those websites that really deserve the treatment they got.

BY SEO Expert Team

If your website is part of the 40% that was impacted by the Farmer Update, then the questions uppermost in your mind are how to get your rankings back, what strategies must be adopted to start recovery at the earliest possible time and how to fix the problem at the earliest. SEO specialists and webmasters have been debating the problem hotly. Here are some of the things you can do to regain your rankings after the Farmer Update.

Firstly, it is necessary to understand that it is difficult to recover your rankings in the short term whether or not specific actions have been taken. One has to wait until Google has weeded out low quality content that topped listings. After that, the recovery process might start. So, there is little relief in the short term.

That said, there are things that may be done to speed the process along.

Before overhauling content, the first step is to determine how much a website has been affected by the Farmer Update. This is a diagnostic tool that suggests how significant the overhaul must be. It is necessary to explore analytics and find the fall in organic traffic for important keywords and keyword phrases. Identify areas that have been affected the most. Sometimes, you might observe that some sections of your website are actually pulling your rankings down. According to experts, any content that is not unique and valuable must be taken down. One of the best strategies is to take off auto-generated content from the website since Google targets low quality content.

Here are some more steps that may be taken to get back into Google’s good books:

1. Find the pages that are most affected and get rid of these pages
2. Improve the content of pages immediately
3. Reduce the volume of internal links
4. Better the ratio of content to ads
5. Take off useless pagination
6. Eliminate any parts of the website that are not of value
7. Make unique boilerplate content for each page
8. Post your feedback on how the update impacted you and submit this to Google
9. Once you have cleaned up the website, request Google for a reinclusion.

The above are some of the most important actions that may be performed in the immediate future. For more information please get in touch with our SEO Expert team.

All said, however, there are stories of disappointment and failure too. It has often happened that businesses have appointed the ‘wrong’ company and naturally, have got less than satisfactory results. When it comes to SEO, for example, one need to ensure that only a White Hat SEO service provider is chosen.

Black Hat SEO, a term that refers to the practice of using unethical practices to inflate results artificially and unnaturally, is still being offered by many SEO companies. The problem with Black Hat SEO is that while results may appear a lot sooner than other by-the-book approaches, they hardly ever stay on for long. After some initial, almost overnight success, you will notice your ranks plummeting. Moreover, you also stand a chance of getting blacklisted by the search engines and that could be a really messy affair.

Black hat SEO is offered by many fly-by-night operators and SEO service providers of dubious repute or credibility. Don’t get taken in by their tempting offers. You may end up having to pay a very dear price. SEO, as every SEO expert worth his salt will tell you, is hardly ever an overnight phenomenon. It takes a good deal of dedicated work and constant supervision. After all, as they say, there’s really no shortcut to success.

What is worthy of noting in this context is that excellent results can be achieved with White Hat SEO methods. And White Hat is probably the only way to go about it. These results are of a more permanent nature than those generated by Black Hat efforts, and no, search engines will not penalize you for them. They are completely ethical, safe and are often based on guidelines laid down by the search engines themselves. So if you are thinking of outsourcing your SEO in India, be sure to find a service provider who will provide you White Hat based solutions. One of the best names to remember in this regard is SEO XPRT. This Indian company has made quite a niche for itself by consistently delivering excellent White Hat SEO solutions to national and international clients of all sizes. Go ahead, get in touch with them today and see your ranks soar in no time.

The key is, therefore, getting discovered by them. And the best way to achieve that is with search engine optimization.

Quite naturally, this is the main reason why organic SEO continues to matter so much even today.

Everyone seems to be searching for fast and effective SEO solutions for their businesses these days. The truth is, something we often fail to realize, that the best SEO services can only be provided by the best man in the industry. In other words, it is needless to state the importance of choosing the right service provider in order to ensure that you receive the best results. It is a common practice nowadays to outsource SEO requirements to countries like India. Besides a substantial cost advantage, there’s also the opportunity to tap into a rich pool of high local talent. SEO in India is a rapidly growing industry and you will find no dearth of highly talented and very skilled SEO experts, ready to offer their services to you at a cost that’s significantly lesser than elsewhere. SEO XPRT is one such name. Boasting of a highly talented panel of search engine optimization and marketing experts, this Indian company has to their credit a long list of satisfied national and international clients of all sizes.

They are at the cutting edge of advanced SEO solutions and strategies that can help businesses get ranked for popular keywords in the shortest possible time. And that’s not all. Besides organic SEO, they also offer a range of other related services such as search engine marketing (such as PPC advertising), Social Media marketing (such as marketing through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), video marketing (Youtube) and more.

If you are looking for comprehensive solutions in SEO in India, you will be pleased with your decision to appoint a company like SEO XPRT. Go ahead, start a talk today.

All said, finding a good SEO professional can be quite a challenging task. It’s not because there is a dearth of such SEO experts, but rather because there are too many mediocre service providers today. If you are contemplating outsourcing your SEO in India, be prepared to find a few bad eggs in the basket. Finding an SEO service provider in India is a tempting proposition for many reasons. First of all is the local pool of talented professionals that you’d find in India. Indeed, some of the best experts in SEO come from here.

Secondly, there is the significant cost advantage. It takes substantially less to get your SEO campaign up and running when you source it to an Indian company.

However, the seamier side of the story is that you still run the risk of hiring a less competent provider if you are not careful enough. After all, you can’t afford to wait for months in anticipation of your ranks going up only to find a marginal improvement or none at all. These are just some of the reasons why an SEO company like SEO XPRT is a natural choice for any online business looking to boost traffic through natural, organic means. These guys take SEO as seriously as you take your online business. And it shows in every aspect of their work. If you need dynamism in your SEO campaign, and adherence to not just the best practices of the game but a keenness to embrace newer methods too, SEO XPRT is the name to remember.

SEO XPRT displays the rare courage of refusing clients with unrealistic demands. In other words, they never take upon themselves something that cannot be accomplished. This is a happy break from the thousands of other service providers who make tall claims to bag a project only to fail miserably afterwards to live up to them.

Transparency is another major aspect of modus operandi of SEO XPRT. They are always available to discuss your campaign with you anytime you wish, and also suggest changes and modifications to ensure sustained effectiveness.

Search Engine Optimization is about making a particular company’s website more visible to online traffic by carefully ensuring that search engines like Google, MSN, or Yahoo! intercept that page and associate the search keywords with the webpage. The closer the relativity between the website and the keywords, the more priority that particular website gets in the order of search results – i.e. the best matches are the first few results.

But how is this achieved? This requires your company to have a good website, regular social media exposure, and strong SEO management. Outsourcing SEO services has some definite benefits. Your work is done by a team of professionals; from software experts to make your website secure, designers to make it attractive, and SEO analysts to make your presence outstandingly relevant to common words people search with.

A company dealing in any product or services requires an online presence, but they cannot make sure of that unless the SEO activities are well executed. At SeoXprt, this is what we do – ensure that your website receives the maximum relevant exposure! By carefully placing the relevant keywords intelligently into your website’s content, the page is made more visible to the search engine.

When you are outsourcing SEO services to us, we ensure that when people are looking for the services or products you deal in, their attention will first turn to your website. Our proficient SEO experts on the job carefully scrutinize what words are most common and relevant to your context and place. From building the website to managing your online reputation, SeoXprt will be with your business all the way. Our SEO outsourcing services include Social Media Marketing where we utilize online social hotspots like Facebook and Twitter to promote and spread awareness of your presence. When outsourcing SEO services to us, you have the benefit of choosing from a wide spectrum that also includes Link Building services where people are directed to your website when they read relevant blogs or articles regarding your product or services. All these are but a part of how SeoXprt will ensure that you can utilize the facilities and advantages of the Internet.