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I just discovered that for very long time (two years) I did something terribly wrong from SEO perspective, and now my website has a very low ranking (I barely appear in Google results).

Update (I was asked to provide details): my website is a search engine for jobs, similar to Indeed. But unlike Indeed, I was displaying whole job content on my website. I just realized that this might be considered by Google as a duplicate, and that can explain my very low SEO ranking.

One way to fix this situation is to display only short snippet of job details - so will be no duplication.

Does doing that will bring my ranking back, or my site kind of "blacklisted" forever?

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    If you site consists only of content that can be found elsewhere, why would Google include in the search results? I'm not sure that it matters if it is full content, or snippets. If you have nothing original, your site isn't adding any value to the internet. – Stephen Ostermiller♦ Nov 12 '17 at 17:29
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    @StephenOstermiller: I not sure that my site adding nothing. Since it indexing content with understanding about position details, it allows to perform job-searching specific queries, such as filtering by companies or by dates for example. Also, it allows to see all results in one single place and it allows to subscribe for job updates - all these gives a great value to jobs searchers. So, even if content is not original - it adding value as a search engine. – Illidan Nov 12 '17 at 18:56
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    Yes, that sounds useful, but not for indexing in another search engine. Google doesn't want to see search results in search results. Google generally wants to send visitors to the origin of the content, so it won't usually index copies. A site like yours either needs to also create original content to put in search engines, or rely on traffic from sources other than organic search. – Stephen Ostermiller♦ Nov 12 '17 at 19:00
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In order to correct this problem, you must first determine if an action (manual or automatic) has been taken against your site. Based on reading your question, it seems likely that you may have been penalized due to duplicate content; however, it is imperative to understand if one or more rules have been violated. If indeed you have been penalized, it is possible that the penalty had to do with duplicate content (as stated above). Subsequently, this may have something to do with your search and filter features - as displaying the exact same content on different URL's and doing so without indicating to Google which URL is the preferred version read more about canonicalization here - could also be your problem. According to Google's Webmaster Guidelines for duplicate content:

If your site contains multiple pages with largely identical content, there are a number of ways you can indicate your preferred URL to Google.

Ok, so what you need to do is diagnose what, if any, problem exists, fix it, and then submit your website for reconsideration.

Here are step-by-step instructions:

  1. Sign in-to your Google Search Console Account. If you don't have one, it's about that time that you create one.

  2. Make sure that you have verified all versions of your website. This is the only way to know that your diagnosis is complete and accurate (not to mention, it's the proper way to use Search Console).

Note: All versions of your website include the "www" version and "non-www" version. If you have an SSL certificate installed on your website, you should also verify the "https-www" version of your site, long with the "https-non-www" version of your site. In the latter situation, one site can have 4 instances in search console.

  1. Visit the manual actions section on all of your sites to see if Google has taken any actions on or against your website.

  2. If Google has taken a manual action, they will actually tell you what you did wrong, or the general Quality or Content guidelines that you are in violation of.

  3. Additionally, review the "Security Issues" in Search Console to make sure that there are not any other problems with your website - definitely check this off the list.

  4. Click on "request a review" to ask Google to reconsider your site.

If you want to hear and see this info from the horse's mouth, I've included a link to a youtube video of Matt Cutts explaining exactly what you should include in a "proper reconsideration request."

Best of luck to you!

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  • thank you for finding a time for writing such detailed answer. So, in case I see no messages about quality violations or any security issues - that means that no penalty taken against my site? – Illidan Nov 13 '17 at 5:02

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