Before we talk about Google penalty check, let’s talk a little bit about what Google’s penalty actually means. In terms of SEO, if a website negatively lowers organic traffic and its ranking in Google’s search engine due to Google’s algorithm update or manual action, that site will be considered penalized by Google.

Those of us who work on online platforms and having a website, maybe we blog or maintain client websites, but we check our Google Analytics every day. How many traffic are we getting, what about the bounce rate, whether the traffic has dropped, all these things!

If we see that the traffic has dropped abnormally then we wonder how it happened? Did my website get a penalty from Google? This is definitely a concern for webmasters. Moreover there are many of us who sell their sites in marketplaces like Flippa or Empire Flipper. In that case, before buying a site, it is vital for us to know if that site has been penalized by Google. Otherwise a lot of financial loss will have to be counted.

I check a few things to understand if the website got a penalty from Google. I will talk about those issues here.

Check Issues From Google Search Console

First I go to the Google search console. From the left menu there, from Security & Manual Actions to Manual Actions, check if any issue has been created. If there is no issue, then it must be beautiful!

Check From Google Analytics

Another thing is that Google updates its algorithm almost every year. In that case, we need to know exactly on what date in which month Google updated its algorithm and whether the traffic of any of my websites dropped abnormally on that date. If the website traffic decreases abnormally on the day of Google’s algorithm update, then it should be considered that according to Google’s updated algorithm, the website has conflicted with some issues and therefore Google has downgraded the site. There are several ways to check it, one of which is to go to Google Analytics and check Behavior> Site Content> All Pages.

Check If It Is A Seasonal Content

Remember the fidget spinner? It was very popular, isn’t it! The time was 2017. There was a lot of interest in fidget spinners worldwide. But gradually it gets lost in the flow of time. This product and topic that shook the market for a while is now almost dead. I say this because if the niche of a website is seasonal, then it is normal for its traffic to bounce at different times. And in that case Google Trend can help us a lot. Before selecting a niche, it is better to check the interest and demand of the people about it from Google Trends.

This was my initial checklist for checking Google’s penalty for any website. Like it? What else do you think should be considered? Let me know your valuable feedback by commenting below!