Google Reconsideration - To do or not to do?
-
We haven't been manually penalized by Google yet but we have had our fair share of things needing to be fixed; malware, bad links, lack/if no content, lack-luster UX, and issues with sitemaps & redirects.
Should we still submit a reconsideration even though we haven't had a direct penalty? Does hurt us to send it?
-
Thanks for the feedback! We are confident that there isn't anything 'black hat-ty' going on with our website; just lots of issues that have been heightened because of the updates this past year or two with no real movement from management to take action.
I was advised by our SEO consultant that we should submit a reconsideration because we have made a quite a few changes but still seem to have no impact, even thought, for instance, we have added over 250 articles to our main directory pages.
I guess I have to have a think on this, it seems from the few comments here, that we don't really have anything to gain, just opening ourselves up to Google's finer comb..
Hmm!!.... Thanks! SEOmozers
-
We have filed a few reconsideration requests in the past, and in all but one case I have received responses about there being no manual penalty.
A few years ago we had a site that had been manually penalized, but we did not know about it (no notification was sent to us through Google Webmaster Tools). After we sent a reconsideration request, the manual penalty on this site was removed.
For the sites that did not have a manual penalty, we have not seen any impact (negative or positive) as a result of the reconsideration request.
Since you know about several issues that are hurting your SEO performance, in your case I would likely work on those before contacting Google. I have only contacted Google for sites that I believe don't have significant issues.
-
As Mat said, you could be risking more scrutiny, so if you submit a recon request, be sure you can endure the attention your site will get.
However, I can see no possible gain to doing so. So why bother? All you'll get out of it is a message saying they found no manual action against your site, and advising you to check for other possible causes of a loss of traffic, yada, yada, yada... -
If you are (REALLY) confident that there is nothing off-white going on with your site and it's links then you theoretically have nothing to lose. Whether or not there is anything to gain is an oft-discussed point.
You would though be inviting to |Google to look manually at your link profile, so if you aren't so confident then there could be lots to lose.
For my money I wouldn't do a re-inclusion request without having received a penalty warning. If you haven't got a manual penalty then there is nothing to remove, so I don't see any gain.
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
-
Google AMP (accelerated mobile pages), can it be used for non-Google news and Ecommerce Websites?
Mozzers, I've been doing a lot of research on Google's new Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) https://moz.com/blog/accelerated-mobile-pages-whiteboard-friday. From what I'm seeing, these AMP version websites are only for Google News-worthy websites such as New York Times, Cosmopolitan, and the BuzzFeeds of the world. But what about Ecommerce websites like Ebay or Amazon? Will AMP versions of "scotch tape" via OfficeDepot work in the SERP's on non-Google News cards?
Algorithm Updates | | Shawn1240 -
Reduced traffic from google news
I have a question for my site. Can you advice me for situation? Last 1 months my site reduced traffic from google and google news.. And i dont know why? I need your advice. Thanks. Yunus Altindag Diyarbakir/Turkey
Algorithm Updates | | maxbilgisayar0 -
Is it stil a rule that Google will only index pages up to three tiers deep? Or has this changed?
I haven't looked into this in a while, it used to be that you didn't want to bury pages beyond three clicks from the main page. What is the rule now in order to have deep pages indexed?
Algorithm Updates | | seoessentials0 -
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 Authorship and Hobby Blog
I hope that someone can help me come up with the best option. Please forgive my ignorance on this issue. I have a hobby blog and up until now I have not wanted to associate it with my real name. It is a menswear blog about classic American style. I was afraid that it may be a hindrance if I was ever looking for a more conservative career than SEO. I am now reconsidering this and thinking that claiming it may be of more help than harm. Which brings me to Google Authorship. My dilemma and misunderstanding stems from the fact that I have mutliple Gmail accounts. I am guessing that some of the newer accounts have a G+ associated with them. So my question is do I use the email that is associated with my blog or my main gmail that I use personally? If I do use the gmail associated with the blog will it then become my default Google plus profile? Any insight would be helpful. Thanks in advance. If any of you are interested the hobby blog is Oxford Cloth Button Down.
Algorithm Updates | | JerrodDavid0 -
Is it wise to conduct a link building campaign to a Google+ Local page?
Is it wise, while doing a link building campaign to not only focus on the main website target page, but also the Google+ Local page? Here are two strategies I was thinking of using: 1. Conduct a city specific link building campaign to direct traffic to the location specific page on the main website AND the Google+ Local page. 2. Use the main website to direct traffic to each cities specific Google+ Local page. Does it make sense to drive links to a Google+ Local page? It does to me, but I haven't seen anything written about that yet... or perhaps I've just missed it along the way. I'd love to hear the communities thoughts. Thanks! Doug
Algorithm Updates | | DougHoltOnline0 -
Is Google now ignoring title tags?
Hey guys, I noticed alot of titles of webpages in Google now vary from search to search. They also differ from the Title tag that has been set by the webmaster. Anyone else notice this? (My results are depersonalized)
Algorithm Updates | | benjaminspak0 -
If Google turns down the weight of keywords in domains then what will they be turning up?
Per Matt Cutts video "We will be turning that keyword in domain down." http://youtu.be/rAWFv43qubI So what will they be turning up?
Algorithm Updates | | Thos0030