There has been a lot of coverage in the blogosphere recently dedicated to the huge surge in notifications that Google have been sending out to Webmasters regarding their alleged use of unnatural linking methods. There have been more than 700,000 sent out in January and February of this year; more than were sent out during the entirety of 2011, and over than four times more than were sent out during 2010. This is a real statement by Google, they’re cleaning up their SERPs and they’re clamping down harder than ever before on those willing to manipulate the system through malicious link schemes.
Unfortunately, as a result of this cull there has been some collateral damage and genuinely innocent webmasters have found themselves receiving this notification about spammy linking activity. Sometimes the websites in question have their own naivety to blame, as they were reeled in by unethical link builders masquerading as agencies who developed them link profiles that were as natural as Katie Price’s breasts. Other times, the notification came to webmasters like a bolt from the blue; seemingly random and callous in its bluntness. The message looked like this:
Dear site owner
We’ve detected that some of your site’s pages may be using techniques that are outside Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural links pointing to your site that could be intended to manipulate PageRank. Examples of unnatural linking could include buying links to pass PageRank or participating in link schemes.
We encourage you to make changes to your site so that it meets our quality guidelines. Once you’ve made these changes, please submit your site for reconsideration in Google’s search results.
If you find unnatural links to your site that you are unable to control or remove, please provide the details in your reconsideration request.
If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support.
Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team
It seems when dealing with Google that you’re not innocent until proven guilty, rather the other way round. I think it’s fair to say that Webmasters around the world who rely on organic Google traffic for the majority of their business are understandably unhappy about being put in this position. Still, rather than moan about it, I thought it would be helpful to go through a solution to this issue, and failing that, a few other possibilities that could salvage a search marketing campaign following one of these notifications.
The only certified method to fully recover from one of these penalties is to file a ‘reconsideration request’, and in this blog I’ll take you through how to do this and maximise your chances for reconsideration in the SERPs.
How to file a reconsideration request for Google:
One of the most important things to keep in mind when writing a reconsideration request is that they are going to be viewed and processed by a human Google employee. There is no automated process or algorithm applied used to filter these requests. For this reason, diligence is an absolute necessity. If you flake over any of the details, forget to mention any activity that could have been interpreted as spammy, or fail to mention any fixes that you have made, no matter how minor, it is likely that your appeal for reconsideration will fail.
The next step is to review the Webmaster Guidelines and really study it to try and locate if your website is in violation of them. The most likely reason that a website will incur a penalty is because of they have violated a ‘quality’ guideline, particularly in the current online environment when the quality of a website is under such scrutiny. A few of the basic principles covered in Google’s Quality Guidelines are:
+ Make pages primarily for users, not for the search engines.
+ Avoid tricks that are used to improve search engine rankings (cloaking etc.)
+ Don’t participate in link schemes, don’t buy and sell them with the intention of improving rankings.
+ Don’t use unauthorized programmes to submit pages or check rankings.
Again, really be diligent when considering the reasons why your website might have been penalised, even if it means looking at links that were built years ago.
When you are masking changes, ensure that you keep a log of everything you do. It might be a good idea open an excel document where you can record everything. For example, if you are removing links, record the domain where the link is found, when it was created, who created it (was it you or an agency), why it was created, why you are removing it and the date that you removed it. This way you are just ensuring that nothing is missed when you send the report back to Google.
If you’ve dealt with a manipulative, low-quality agency in the past that has built you unnatural links in the past, you’ll need to get a full report from them detailing exactly what links they have built and where they had built them. Remove these links if you feel the violate Google’s quality guidelines and again track the removals you are making and be prepared to include them in your reconsideration request.
When you are satisfied that your website is definitely in line with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, you should have write out your reinclusion request. This should detail all the changes you have made, the actions that led to you needing to make the removals in the first place, and any interactions you had had with dubious agencies in the past. Unfortunately, after submitting the request, all you can do is wait.
You will generally receive notification that Google have received the request, but there’s no telling how long it could take them to process it. As long as you have been extra diligent in rubbing out any potentially dubious occurrences on your site, and you have explained them to Google showing why they occurred, and showing that you have fixed them, your site has a good chance for reinclusion.
Have you had any experiences with reinclusion requests or have you had a site that has been penalised with a PR reduction or a drop in rankings? We’d love to hear from you.
This blog was written over 6 months ago and Internet Marketing and is an always changing industry which means the information within this blog may be out of date. Use caution when using any methods or suggestions within it.
