TRAFFIC
“Threatening or actually pursuing legal action, as
undertaken in the past by organisations of all sizes,
is futile and usually results in negative PR.”
While at the time of writing, Google
has not confirmed a turnaround time
for Reconsideration Request processing,
experience shows that it may take
anywhere from hours to weeks before
a response is received. There is no way
of knowing when the website will be
reviewed. On top of that, chances are
that thoroughly analysing the issue that
initially caused the penalty to be applied,
as well as addressing it and documenting
the steps in the process in order to be
able to provide a compelling rationale
for reconsideration, simply take time.
A reconsideration request submitted
shortly after a manual spam action
warning was received is equivalent to
indicating to Google that no clean-up
effort was undertaken.
3. Any attempt to rationalise, negotiate
or threaten legal action is also a poor
way to to try to solve the issue. The
Google Index is private with clear,
non-negotiable terms of service. It also
does not matter whether competitor
sites appear to be getting away with far
worse violations of Google Webmaster
Guidelines, or that the cause of a
past penalty was a webmaster who
disappeared from the picture a long time
ago. Likewise, threatening or actually
pursuing legal action, as undertaken in
the past by organisations of all sizes, is
futile and usually results in negative PR,
as competitors and SEO industry voices
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iGB Affiliate Issue 51 JUNE/JULY 2015
will be quick to highlight any public
denials of shady optimization methods.
4. Similarly claiming no knowledge of
any wrongdoing does not help. Neither
do lengthy explanations as to why noone can be blamed for a lack of SEO
expertise. Or partial disclosure, admitting
to bits and pieces of what Google
defines as black hat techniques, while
conveniently omitting others. Splitting
of hairs and providing an overload of
information via excessive documentation
will also not help save the day. If
anything, these approaches are the exact
opposite of that which tends to help
deliver results, which is brief, honest and
to-the-point disclosure.
5. Seeking feedback and specific
guidance, especially by the less-techsavvy entrepreneur or webmaster
who repeatedly failed to apply
for reconsideration, will also be
frustrating and futile. While the Google
Reconsideration Request process - at the
time of writing this article - is a manual
one, it does not allow for individual,
site issue-specific responses. There
are dedicated public Google support
channels, such as Google Webmaster
Help Forums or periodical Google
Webmaster Hangouts, which provide
free-of-charge assistance. A more
confidential alternative is offered by
SEO professionals providing penalty
recovery and Reconsideration Request
assistance in a package that includes
auditing, documentation and a proven
request rationale.
Finally, there’s one more thing you
should avoid when dealing with a persistent
Google manual penalty: falling into despair.
Experience clearly shows that any penalty
can be lifted, even if the effort required
may on occasions be substantial. There
is currently no limit on the number of
times you can apply for reconsideration,
even if every renewed request requires an
even-more-thorough investigation and the
likelihood of more rigorous clean-up efforts.
With that important point in mind, any
business website that has been penalized,
whether long-established or recently
acquired, has a future and the potential to
grow visibility in Google Search.
FILI WIESE and KASPAR
SZYMANSKI are both
former members of the
Google Search Quality
team. Together they have
nearly 15 years’ experience of
hunting webspam, e X