How can I tell if my website is affected by a particular algorithm?

Webmasters, without the required knowledge or information may get penalised based on Google’s algorithms. When you are affected, you may see your SEO ranking dropped. As a matter of fact, just this month, there have been a good number of webmasters or site owners which have been sent notices with regard to manual web spam. Penalties and notices will be sent to inform owners and administrators that their websites contain unnatural inbound links. Matt Cutts now answers this very important and intriguing question: How can you tell if your site is suffering from an algorithmic penalty, or you are simply being outgunned by better content?”

But before getting to the answer, Matt slightly touches on the topic of manual actions or penalties. Those who have been penalized will definitely be notified with regard to the reasons and the circumstances that led you to being penalized by Google. You will also be given the right set of instructions to correct your mistakes.

Video Highlights

Moving on to the actual question, here are the highlights of this video:

• Google does not focus on actions that would penalize an individual page or website. Its Spam Search team deals more with the holistic impact of websites and their links on the internet. It is safe to say that they do not really look at algorithmic penalties but rather, work on changes that would change or develop your page rankings and the behavior of users and crawlers in positively.
• Google changes its algorithm in a regular manner, and if in any case their changes such as the new Penguin update or Panda update, would greatly impact specific websites, then their owners will be notified immediately.
• There are no definite means to determine the reason behind your website’s decline in terms of rankings. But the good thing about this is that, Google’s algorithms can most certainly re-evaluate your rankings and with the changes that you have done, there is a big possibility that your rankings will improve.

In order to get higher SEO rankings, you should:

• Set up a Google Webmaster Tools. This will make sure that you are aware of how search engines and even users interact and make use of your website. Verify your website and your links using the Webmaster Tools; this will help your site become more discoverable.
• Google Analytics will surely be able to assist you in understanding what people search for and getting more acquainted with the people who check your site out.
• Improve your usability. Remember that usability- which includes content, appeal and navigation will help you rank higher online.