Proper Way To Submit A Reconsideration Request To Google
-
Hello,
In previous posts, I was speaking about how we were penalized by Google for unnatural links. Basically 50,000 our of our 58,000 links were coming from 4-5 sites with the same exact anchor text and img alt tags. This obviously was causing our issues. Needless to say, I wen through the complete link profile to determine that all of the links besides this were of natrural origins.
My question here is what is the accepted protocol of submitting a reinclusion request; For example, how long should it be? Should I disclose that I was in fact using paid links, and now that I removed (or at least nofollowed) them? I want to make sure that the request as good as it should so I can get our rankings up in a timely manner.
Also, how long until the request is typically aknowledged?
Thanks
-
Hi Daniel,
I hope that by now your penalty situation has been resolved.
Was just a little concerned when I read this thread that there might be a little confusion over the need to remove those paid links from your site.
I just wanted to clear this up for any new people reading Q&A who might take away the wrong idea from the thread.
If the paid links are now nofollowed, you don't need to remove them (unless they are serving no other worthwhile purpose).
Matt Cutts talked about this in the webmaster help video Why do paid links violate Google's guidelines while other ads don't?
As Matt explains in the video, there is nothing wrong with having paid advertising on your site, as long as there is disclosure (usually in the form of a nofollow tag).
For those who might be reading this thread because they too are wondering what to include in a reconsideration request, we have created a Checklist on our site that might help. http://www.rmoov.com/google-reconsideration-request-checklist.php
Hope the penalty is now far behind you,
Sha
-
I would definitely mention the fact that you are under contract. I can't see any harm in it and it will probably look like a measure of good faith and honesty to Google that you are telling them everything.
-
Thank you everyone for your responses, they are all very helpful. Just to inform you guys, all of my problems were stemming from these paid links. The rest of my link profile is pretty healthy. The reason I cannot get the links removed altogether for now is because the ad network that I used is holding me to a contract, until the end of September, then i'm obviously canning them. Do you think I should state that in the request as well, about the links are there (but nofollowed) because I have a contract I committed to, but they will be completely removed at the end of September? Or should I just say I had them nofollowed. I am lucky in the way that all my paid links came from one network, and they cleaned up all of them in a few days (I verified on several hundred pages. Basically 15000 links were spread over 4 sites with macpokeronline.com as the anchor and 35000 links on macobserver.com with image link alt text as macpokeronline, which hit us with penguin as well as the manual paid link penalty.
Thanks again, and i'll let you guys know how this pans out
-
Good responses. Here is what I would do if I were in your shoes.
I would start off with a humble sentence: "Hi Google team. Thank you for receiving my reconsideration request. I realize that some of my links were not in line with the Google Quality Guidelines. In this document I have outlined what I have done to rectify that."
Then, I would list my links. So I'd say, for example,
"There are 10,000 links that come from example1.com. These were links that I previously paid for. I now realize that this is against the quality guidelines and I have had those links removed (or nofollowed)."
I'd do the same thing for all of my bad links.
If I had any where I couldn't get the links removed or nofollowed I would say this:
"There are xxxx links from example2.com. I have contacted the webmaster by sending an email to **admin@example1.com. **Here is a copy of my email:....
...I also found this email in the WHOIS data for the site and sent an email which you can see here....
...I heard no response, so I used a contact form on the site and have yet to hear back from them. "
I would make sure that I had an explanation for every single link pointing to my site. I wouldn't try to hide anything.
I would end with something like this,
"Thanks again for considering my request. From this point on I am committed to following the Quality Guidelines."
In the past it would take ages to get a response (and some webmasters never did) but Google has upgraded their response time. Most requests now get a response within 3-14 days.
Good luck!
-
Daniel,
One thing that I know in terms of how timely is that it will depend as much on what you submit as it will on Google. First, you have to show what you have done to change the issue. If there are communications between you and a paid directory where you are not getting any response or action, show that communication.
Avoid, the temptation to try to 'cosmetically' fix this by changing alt text, anchor text, etc. Remember, this will be looked at by humans. With it being four to five sites, your work should be easier so long as you have a lot of communication with the linking sites showing your efforts to end or ameliorate.Alan is very correct when he says, "Don't think you can keep sending them in because, from what I've read, they will eventually st listening."
Get every duck in a row,
Make sure a bunch are gone, if, they are going to the trouble to nofollow, why not eliminate altogether?
No point saying, I asked them all but no one complied....
Only when there is massive evidence of your effort to fix it would I ask for reconsideration.
Good luck,
Robert
-
Honesty pays, I think. Google knows pretty much what you did. The engine guesses, but when a live body checks on your request, it's not likely you will fool them. They know which sites sell paid links. If someone else also paid for links from that site and they already did a reinclusion request and said they bought links from that site, you paint a target on yourself if you don't own up to it - unless you really didn't buy the links.
You could wait up to a month for any response, going on past history. Be sure you're disclosing everything you know about in one request. Don't think you can keep sending them in because, from what I've read, they will eventually stop listening.
I can't help you with protocol, other than to say spell it all out because they can't read your mind and expecting them to guess probably won't work in your favor.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Traffic cut-off since Google core update
Hi all, I am the webmaster of www.chepicap.com/en (Cryptocurrency news), and since the 3rd of june (Google core algorithm update) we got the hammer from Google. Organic traffic dropped with 90%+ overnight. We are still in the dark whether we can do to improve the current situation. Does someone have suggestions regarding this issue?
Algorithm Updates | | NielsDE0 -
Not showing in Google map listing. Why?
We have a client who's law firm is the highest google reviewed, on page two or three of St. Louis personal injury lawyer, but does not show in the map listing. Any ideas why this would happen or how to ensure they are viewable in the map listing?
Algorithm Updates | | David-Kley0 -
Help for a webstore with Google Warnings for Watermark Images and Panda
I have not had too much experience with helping websites that have been hit by Panda - any tried and tested formulas I can pass to website owner would be great. He does not want to reveal domain name - its in the area of children/baby products 'Web site featured on page 1 of Google search results for many years (website 5 years old- Australian domain) . In April/May 2014, Google suspended our Google Shopping account because we used watermarks on all our images. We were advised that the suspension would remain in place indefinitely or until such time the watermarks were removed. We wrote back to Google to explain that these watermarks were put in place by our store back 2005 with the sole purpose of protecting our intellectual property. Needless to say, their attitude was unwavering. And as a result, revenue plummeted. However, the perfect storm was about to hit our store without warning. In the same month, Panda 4.0 was unleashed and our store was hit once again. This update alone reduced visitor numbers by around 50% overnight. The Panda 4.0 algorithm update was designed to target poor quality, duplicate content and unfortunately we had some of it. We have now begun creating original content with many of the new products we're uploading onto our web site. It's slow and tedious. We have modified our web site to now include a tag on a the home page (this was missing). We have removed many duplicate links from our footer (it was too big and contained hundreds of links that were also repeated from the header). We introduced a blog and we have engaged the services of a local seo company to disavow any bad backlinks and add missing or improve existing content to category and brand pages. No improvement in our situation is yet visible and with Christmas just 3 months away, poor sales during our 'bread and butter' period will mean even tougher times for our store in 2015. ANY PANDA EXPERTS who can help please email me felicity@gardenbeet.com - looking for independent freelancers rather than agencies
Algorithm Updates | | GardenBeet0 -
Any SEO thoughts about Google's new Data Highlighter for products?
After searching around on the web for a while I couldn't find any case studies or interesting posting about Google's new feature to highlight structured data. In Google Webmaster Tools you can now tag your products to be displayed as structured data in Google's search results. Two questions that rose immediately: 1. What effect will Google's new Data Hightlighter for products have on your SEO? Can we expect better CTR's for productspage results in Google? Better conversion rates perhaps? Any case studies that show KPI improvements after using structured data for products? 2. I would love to see some examples in the search results to see what productpages would look like after Data Highlighting it. Your thoughts or input about this subject will be much appreciated.
Algorithm Updates | | SDIM0 -
Site not in Google top 50 for key terms
Dear Moz Community, Our site - http://www.sportsdirectnews.com publishes a high volume of daily sport stories and aims to follow Google's Webmaster Guidelines, yet our pages don't appear anywhere in Google's SERP's. We've looked in details at the issue and think it could be something to do with: a) Unusual links or b) High page loading time or c) Too many on-page links If you could have a look at the site - http://www.sportsdirectnews.com - and give your professional opinion as to why our website is not appearing in SERP's, we would be most appreciative. SDN
Algorithm Updates | | BoomDialogue690 -
Does a KML file have to be indexed by Google?
I'm currently using the Yoast Local SEO plugin for WordPress to generate my KML file which is linked to from the GeoSitemap. Check it out http://www.holycitycatering.com/sitemap_index.xml. A competitor of mine just told me that this isn't correct and that the link to the KML should be a downloadable file that's indexed in Google. This is the opposite of what Yoast is saying... "He's wrong. 🙂 And the KML isn't a file, it's being rendered. You wouldn't want it to be indexed anyway, you just want Google to find the information in there. What is the best way to create a KML? Should it be indexed?
Algorithm Updates | | projectassistant1 -
Google Multiple Results
With Google's penchant for listing at times many results - one on top of the other - from the same domain, is it now advisable to not worry about having multiple pages in the same site targeting the same or very similar keywords? Is this (keyword/page internal competition) one less thing that I have to worry about or worry about less or what? Thanks! Best... Jane
Algorithm Updates | | 945010 -
Decent rankings in Google, nothing in Bing and Yahoo
Hi there, I'm in the process of SEOing a site in a very competitive sector, the short term loans market. The URL for the site is http://www.piggy-bank.co.uk. I've managed to get a fair bit of success in Google for some very competitive keywords like short term loans, short term lender etc but in Bing and Yahoo I'm having no luck at all, with only 2 visits in the past month and no decent rankings!! I think I'm doing everything right, with regular new content on the site, decent technical SEO, semantic site structure, regular site map upload, a 10 year old domain, holistic link building through guest blogging etc, but still no luck at all. Looking at the webmaster tools in Bing, 95% of the URLs are indexed, but I'm getting such a low impression count, and obviously, an even lower click through. Am I missing something really obvious? Does anyone have any suggestions to improve my Bing and Yahoo rankings? I've worked on 100s of other sites and Yahoo and Bing tend to be the easy win to make the client happy 😉 Thanks in advance for your help. Dan
Algorithm Updates | | djslimited1