How do I presuade Google to re-consider my site?

[Ofer23]

A few weeks ago I got an emai from Google that my site is suspected to violating Google guidelines-->suspected links manipulationg Google Page rank.

My site dropped to the second page.

I have contacted some of the top webmasters who link to me and they have removed the links or added a nofollow.

When I asked for re-consideation I got an answear that there are still suspected links.

What do I do now? I can't remove all of my links?!

BTW this happened before the offical Pinguin Update.

[rikano]

You got a manual link penalty i think. I have dealt with such penalties 3 times now (2 turned successful and 1 is in the go). Here is what you should do:

1. Get rid of spammy links (low quality and medium quality too) When you're manually reviewed, even the good links can become bad (algo can't detect them, but humans do)

2. Use disavow tool to ignore the remaining medium/low quality links you couldnt delete ( and the one you deleted too). Try to disavow domains either than simple urls. Struggling in taht penaly is worse than over-disavowing links, as it's easier to build ne links again.

3. Build a link asset onsite and try to grab some high quality and natural links (this should be done before reconsideration request). If your site is deserves to rank high, it should still receive High Q links even if it's not showing in G results.This sounds logic, right ?

4. Wait 4-6 weeks after submitting the diseavow file to google, and then send reconsideration request.

Bear in mind, you wil be most likely denied for the first and 2nd request like to 80% of the times, but  the 3rd one can turn to be successful more often. So you have to be patient.

One last piece of advice: if recovering your website doesnt pay off the amount of work, time and money you will invest, just throw it away and start over with a new domain. And if you need someone with experience to handle the problem and take a closer look (audit) on your link profile, don't hesitate to call me back.

Wish you good continuation

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Ofer

There are different kinds of penalties and if you had this before penguin then you have a manual penalty and unfortunately, you have to work a bit harder to dig your way out of this hole as it will be manually reviewed.

So, if we just review what you said above:

"I have contacted some of the top webmasters who link to me and they have removed the links or added a nofollow."

Imagine how that looks to Google, you are almost saying:

"Hi Google, I have contacted some of the sites with dodgy links, but not all of them and some of these have removed or no followed them. Can I start ranking again where I was before and carry on benefiting from the rest of my manipulative links?"

I am really sorry to sound so harsh, but if you have a manual penalty, then you are going to have to do a little better than that if you want to get out of this and unfortunately, when these links are removed and you are no longer benefiting from them, depending on how much of your link profile this makes up, you may well rank lower than where you were.

Lets just look at something else you said:

"What do I do now? I can't remove all of my links?!"

Unfortunately, if you have followed short cuts to the top, and not invested in content and safe link building then the days of easy ranking are over and if all of your links are manipulative, you may do better to burn this house down and start again.

Really sorry to be the barer of bad news but with a manual penalty, we need to be transparent and show you have done your very best to sort this situation out which at the moment, you have not done.

Marcus

[Francisco_Meza]

I would assume they stick to their word

[Ofer23]

In the Google guidelines they state that making a link a nofollow link is good enough from their point of view to not consider the link as trying to manipulating google ranking.

Is it true? Or do you need to actually remove the link?

[loopyal]

Slow down Ofer, or you will cause more damage to yourself

I know you want to fix this as fast as possible, but don't ask until you are sure you got everything.

If you fix a little bit but not all and keep asking, they may stop responding to you.

You should also thoroughly check things on your own site. I could be wrong, but I think a page rank drop penalty will not be because bad sites link to you or that strong sites link to you, but more likely that you sell links based on your PR, so google's way to stop you is by hitting your PR. Certainly your PR could drop because of the loss of incoming PR due to their sites being hit, but that would just be ranking, not a penalty. Even if you made no money, but you did a trade, it amounts to the same thing.

Did you sell paid links? If so, either nofollow or remove them.
Did you do a lot of multiway links? ( that was stupid) Remove them
Did you trade links with bad sites? ( that was stupid) Remove them
Did you spin content and point links to your site? ( that was stupid) Try to have it removed.

I think removing them is better than no following them, but if you have a quick way to nofollow, then remove afterwards, that might be useful to do.

Make sure your site is clean, then try to have other sites remove links. You need to go after the ones that don't make sense - unrelated sites.

Good luck - and don't ask for reconsideration until you fixed the problem.
When you do ask, document the changes you made, so write them down as you do them..
When you make hundreds of changes, you will never remember them all.

[Francisco_Meza]

I think this may help you. It was a popular blog post from a few weeks ago.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/unnatural-link-warnings-blog-networks-advice

[Ofer23]

I read in the blog that it's a good practice not to add new links while you are planning on sending Google a re-consideration request.

[MoosaHemani]

Wow! You were quite that you shouldn’t be!

Try to plan the removals and don’t go for reconsideration that quick! I would highly recommend using open site explorer or Majestic SEO to extract your complete backlink profile and make the links that you feel are SPAM… then send the request for removal to all webmasters try not to play and request them to remove instead of no follow… as somehow Google still somewhere count no follow! (No follow still can indicate your bad link hood)

On a ground state, not all bad links can be removed from the Google’s profile…  so before you ask for reconsideration request try to add some great links in your link profile… links from high authority blogs, magazines and press links can help you regain your rankings…