Sometimes, Downs Digital acquires a customer who is at odds with Google. After 5-6 months, SEO efforts appear to be dampened and fail to increase organic traffic. Also, another telltale sign that something is amiss is that Google Ad campaigns are ineffective. We investigate and typically uncover secondary company websites and business address manipulation. Google deems these activities deceptive because they are intended to manipulate organic rankings. Once discovered, Google applies algorithmic demotions, which lower organic traffic to the website, resulting in low Quality Scores in Google Ads. Ad campaigns often receive poor ad positioning, low click-through rates, and higher costs.
Why This Matters to Google
To understand why Google cares, we suggest putting yourself in their shoes. Google cares deeply about the credibility of the search results and the user experience. When a company uses secondary doorway pages and business address manipulation, it directly undermines its mission to deliver relevant, trustworthy results to its browser users. These manipulations also increase Google’s computing costs. Google operates massive data centers worldwide, valued at over $100 billion. Even small inefficiencies, such as processing duplicate pages or generating low-quality results, can multiply into significant infrastructure costs. Therefore, it makes economic sense to discourage and penalize companies’ deceptive practices.
Doorway Websites
A company creates a doorway website to manipulate search engine rankings, rather than providing users with meaningful value. These webpages are nearly identical, differing only slightly in terms of keywords or location compared to the company’s main website. For example, a company headquartered in Aurora, Colorado, covets business in Highland Ranch, a massive planned community between Denver and Colorado Springs. Their employees work at their office in Aurora. They have a virtual office location in Highlands Ranch that collects the company’s mail, and they rent no rooms at the co-working space. What makes them deceptive is that they mislead both Google and users. To Google, they appear to be multiple unique results, when in reality, they are redundant entry points or doorways. To users, they seem to promise a page tailored to their search query (like “Highlands Ranch plumber” or “Aurora plumber”), but when clicked, they find thin, repetitive content that does not add unique value. If a visitor calls the number listed on the website, a phone rings at the company’s Aurora office. A doorway website is isolated in navigation and not linked to the company’s main website, which makes it clear it was built primarily for search engines rather than for people browsing the site. The intent is to gain visibility in ways that do not reflect genuine relevance or local presence.
Manipulation of Business Address
Google’s guidelines make it clear that a business profile’s address must reflect a location where the company actually operates during stated hours. Post office boxes and virtual offices are not permitted. Co-working spaces are only allowed if the business maintains a dedicated, permanent office or desk space used by its employees. Attempting to gain rankings using a virtual office in a location where the company is not physically based carries risks, including profile suspension and lower organic traffic. Safer alternatives include setting up a service-area business that lists Aurora as the base but includes Highlands Ranch in the service areas. The page can utilize case studies, testimonials, high-quality links, and photos to rank organically without violating Google’s rules. In short, unless the Highlands Ranch location is truly a staffed and functioning office, Google would consider the virtual address tactic deceptive and subject to penalties. Additionally, a company can lose its reviews on Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business, for manipulating its business address, which can damage its credibility in the markets it serves.
Google Panda Update
In the business arena, Google’s mission is to be a truth teller by producing more relevant and credible search results. In the early days, Google search was manipulated by aggressive SEO tactics that exploited weaknesses in its technology, utilizing content and backlink farms, as well as shallow, keyword-stuffed pages that ranked well despite offering little value to readers. Google has been hiring the best minds from the world’s top universities for over a decade to enhance the sophistication of its technology. It rolled out the Google Panda Update in February 2011 to clean up low-quality results and reward websites that provided genuine value to users.
The update underwent several refinements between 2011 and 2015, and by 2016, it had become part of Google’s core ranking algorithm, running continuously rather than as a periodic filter. The long-term lesson of Panda was clear: SEO could no longer be about churning out large quantities of keyword-based content; instead, SEO should focus on creating original, in-depth, and user-focused content. Web page content and off-page SEO efforts should establish a company’s brand and establish its voice of authority to drive organic traffic growth.
Google Ads Effect
In Google Ads, performance depends not just on bid budget amounts but also on a website’s Quality Score, which measures the relevance and trustworthiness of ads and landing pages. Google bases a company’s Quality Score on the expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience, which directly affects Ad Rank. Its formula is below. Other factors are proprietary to Google.
Ad Rank = Max Bid × Quality Score × Other Factors.
If a company has a low Quality Score, it has to bid higher to achieve the same position as a competitor with a better score. For example, a competitor bidding $4 with a Quality Score of 9 achieves an Ad Rank of 36, while a company with a score of 3 needs to bid $10 to be competitive. When ads run but clicks seem “subdued,” it’s often a sign that Google is giving them less visibility due to low Quality Scores. Google rewards ads that are more relevant and trustworthy with cheaper clicks and better placements, while weaker ads are forced to pay a premium. Paying more is not sustainable, but improving the website experience, establishing a voice of authority, and adhering to Google’s rules will ultimately lower costs and yield stronger pay-per-click results in the long run.
How Do You Get Out of Jail and Get Past Go
For residential services, Google has taken over the role of the Yellow Pages. Today, property owners use search to find products and services for homes and businesses. Getting on the bad side of a 900-pound guerrilla in a small room is not a place a company wants to be, especially when it depends on finding new customers on the web. So, it is simple: do what the guerrilla wants and avoid taking any shortcuts. Once flagged, Google monitors a company’s actions more closely. Stronger engagement demonstrates to Google that the company is working to enhance its trustworthiness.
First, the easy part. The company should remove all doorway websites. Be sure that all duplicate content is removed from the web. Next, stop the virtual office charade by removing its address on the company’s website and across all social media platforms. The company must embrace its main office address and undertake web marketing activities to improve its web presence in all cities and suburbs it serves. Its name, address, and phone number must be consistent across all web platforms, including its website.
Next, the hard part, which takes time. The Panda updates reward authenticity and usefulness. Google rewards transparency and genuine user value, so the only long-term solution is to align a company’s online presence with reality. Useful content attracts the attention of web users and boosts a website’s popularity. Popular websites gain organic traffic, which is how Google rewards authenticity. A company that focuses on short-term clicks rather than building brand and voice authority by producing quality content and increasing engagement across major social media and referral networks over time will likely struggle to reestablish its relationship with Google.
Recommendations
A company might remember that their doorway websites and business address manipulation were effective until Google discovered them. Companies under penalty may attempt to employ black hat SEO practices to increase their organic traffic. First, black hat SEO services are expensive and carry a high risk. The company, under penalty, needs to remember that Google is already monitoring its website. Instead of a quick fix, the company is likely to face much harsher penalties and risk losing its web presence altogether. In other words, the short-term “gain” is often negligible or illusory, and the downside is severe and frequently irreversible.
Additionally, a company that believes it is under penalty must inform its SEO provider. When hiring a digital marketing company, the customer is likely aware of its deceptive practices to gain organic traffic. Other clues include the company losing reviews on its Google Business Profile or losing access to its social media pages. Not sharing this information upfront creates an opportunity loss in both money and time. Rather than rolling out a robust reputation recovery marketing mix to build trust with Google, the agency offers a web marketing mix to grow organic traffic and web sales, which is putting the cart before the horse. A website under penalty needs to improve its standing with Google first.
It is just the way the web works these days.
Downs Digital Marketing has been offering SEO services since 2010. Companies wondering if they their websites are under a Google penalty, should call 303-748-5851.