Uh-oh. You’ve hired a sub-par small business SEO company or you’ve used old SEO tactics and now you’re the recipient of a Google penalty . Is there any way to recover from a Google penalty or are you doomed to be on Google’s bad side for the rest of time?

Don’t worry – this banishment isn’t permanent. There are survival and rescue tactics you can employ to help you and get off your island of search engine banishment.

Gather Your Remaining Resources to Produce Quality Content

Take inventory of why you need a website. Consider what useful information a potential client would need to know about your company. That is the information that needs to be on your website. Just as an abandoned castaway couldn’t live on emergency rations of chocolate, your website can’t live on low-quality content and missing information. You need to make sure you will rebuild your site to reflect the high standards of content that search engines are looking for.

Build a Shelter and Do Some Recon

You need to do some recon work if you want to escape from the banishment island. Think of it as building a cozy little cabin and hammock in your beach-y front yard. Show banishment that you are making the best of the situation and trying to improve your situation. Our SEO Strategist, Andrew Eagar, covered this very topic in one the latest Booster Seat episodes. He covers tips such as removing inorganic links, fetching as Google, and providing documentation. Watch the episode here to learn how you can improve your site to prove that you are actively working to be reconsidered aka rescued from banishment island.

Read the Survival Guidebook

Review the Google’s rules for survival to avoid further banishment and to know how you can rebuild your site if necessary. They’ve made these rules public so no one has any excuse to not stick to the rules. You need to be aware of what tactics that the search engines allow. They don’t want to banish any sites that they don’t have to, but if websites don’t adhere to the rules, then they have no choice

Send A Message in a Bottle

Resubmit your website to Google and other search engines with documentation that you have fixed the things they flagged. Show them your new site, including a new sitemap, new content, new links (if any are applicable…hopefully they all are). By sending the message that you are ready to come back and proving that you are doing everything you can to fix your situation, the search engines are more likely to lift your penalty.

Call for Help

When all else fails, start the signal fire, blow the emergency whistle, and scream for help until somebody responds. You need a professional to get you out of this predicament. Find an SEO company who can repair the errors of your old ways and reintroduce your site to search engines with a fresh framework and new content, and basically a new start on life/search engines. Getting a new SEO company that employs approved SEO techniques will ensure that your site isn’t penalized and is, in fact, ranked high on search engine results pages. Wondering where you can call for help? Try calling Boostability for a free analysis of your website. Our friendly and knowledgeable employees are ready to help you get off the island.

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Colton is the former Director of SEO Strategy at Boostability testing and defining the products and processes that make Boostability's customers successful. He was part of Boostability for over 8 years. Colton loves hanging out with his family and gaming. He runs a personal blog over at www.coltonjmiller.com where he discusses gaming, life, and SEO.