One of the most devastating things that can happen to a small business – especially a business that generates leads and business through the internet – is a Google penalty.
A Google Penalty is often difficult to diagnose and fix, especially if you have recently made multiple changes prior to the suspected website penalty, such as a complete redesign or if you are not completely aware of what your SEO company is doing.  I’ll provide you with some practical advice on how to diagnose and fix a Google Penalty.

What Was Done Before Your Website Rankings Dropped?

I suggest you apply the scientific method of eliminating variables here as well as ask yourself some honest questions. Let’s presume your website previously ranked well in Google for select keyword searches, and now it doesn’t – ask yourself this:

• Did your website really deserve to rank for those terms?
• Have you, your web design firm or your SEO firm recently made changes to your website?
• Where does your website rank for a Google search of mywebsite.com? How about site:mywebsite.com?
• What do you see in your Google Webmaster Tools account?
• Has your organic search traffic dropped on all search engines or just Google?
• Do you buy or sell links (or both)?
• Do you run an affiliate program?

Review and understand exactly what has been done to your website prior to the suspected Google penalty.

Google Penalty or Search Engine Algorithm Change?

Sometimes your website may lose it’s rankings because of an algorithm change. OK – sometimes Google makes a change to it’s algorithm and that can impact your website, the rules do change and that’s a good reason to diversify your small business’ marketing exposure, as well as hiring an SEO firm that stays on top of this activity. Sometimes this happens for other reasons, for example new websites that rely on rankings because of keywords in the url.

In my experience, sudden dramatic drops in small business website rankings are not algorithm changes, but it’s possible.

Fixing a Google Penalty

Here are some of the things I recommend you consider to diagnose and fix a Google penalty:

1. Check your website for Malware and Viruses (every directory, every file, every line of code – start with .htaccess and your web logs.
2. Look at your links – use Xenu or a similar product, a bad link profile can crush a website.
3. On page content – could you be keyword spamming? Using excessive anchor text? Loading your footer with keywords and links?
4. Consider a reconsideration request with Google as a last resort.

Resources for Fixing a Google Penalty

Having seen this with several clients, I understand the frustration and real revenue consequences that come from a penalized website. I recommend the follow websites as resources as well as for more tips on diagnosing and fixing a Google penalty:

• A great flowchart and article on diagnosing a Google penalty by Rand Fishkin at seomoz.org
• Ann Smarty’s post on How to Diagnose the Reason of Google Penalty
• Andy Beard’s article on his experience submitting a Google Reconsideration Request
• Please review the Google Webmaster Guidelines
• Marketing Practicality – my firm, that specializes in small and mid-sized business SEO. We understand the seriousness, urgency, responsiveness needed to restore your website rankings.

If you suspect you have experienced a website penalty, I recommend you either plan on spending a lot of time analyzing exactly what changes potentially triggered the change or hire a professional, qualified SEO company. In order to properly diagnose and fix a Google penalty it is critical to understand what caused it.  More important is fixing the penalty, and restoring your business’ website traffic.

OK – it’s 2010, are you considering your resolutions for your small business website? If you are looking for small business website help, one of the things near the top of your list should be website security risks.

Do You Backup Your Small Business Website?

No one wants another task added to their list, but regularly backing up your website can save a lot of headaches if your website gets hacked.  I have had several clients come to me because their search engine rankings dropped significantly, which often results in a drop in traffic to their small business’ website, which results in a loss of revenue.  Having a small business website can be your primary means of revenue so I strongly recommend your consider the website security risks associated with the responsibility of owning a website.

Blogs and Website Security Risks

WordPress can be a great help to your small business website.  It is an extremely robust and useful, open source blogging platform.  But with popularity comes a price.  WordPress blogs have several website security risks – hackers have automated the process.  In fact most clients that come to me for help with their small business website (after a major drop in rankings) – have had some sort of website security breach.

Here is a great article on best practices for managing a small business WordPress blog:

Triple “P” Of Total WordPress Security

Website Security Risks and Your Small Business Website Host

Have you checked with the company that hosts your small business website?  Do they regularly backup your website?  Are you comfortable that your website could be completely restored in the event of a malware problem?  If not, I recommend you check with them and don’t leave anything to chance.  Backing up your website yourself can save you a lot of hassle if your hosting company isn’t there for you when you need them (or you didn’t understand their policies… remember all that fine print?).

An Ounce of Prevention

It’s an old saying but good sayings get old for a reason.  So if you are looking for small business website help first consider your website security risks. Then move on to the fun stuff like SEO, Google AdWords and other small business marketing techniques.