Penguin 2.1 recovery

[Relevant13]

Our website took a huge hit due to Penguin 2.1 we are looking to keep our domain but create a new site to disavow all our links. Will this work? Any Ideas on this tactic?

[MarieHaynes]

Here's the only correct answer to this question: "Nobody knows".

According to Google, you need to identify your manipulative links, disavow or preferably remove them and then wait for a Penguin refresh.  However, they've never been clear on whether removing is necessary.  John Mueller hinted in a hangout that disavowing was the same as manually removing but then he went on to say that it could be better to manually remove.

I have seen some sites make some sort of recovery with Penguin, but the scary reality is that very few do.  In order to recover you need to have a good base of natural links (not self made, but earned) and also be able to attract new links in the future.  And, you need to do an extremely thorough job on cleaning up your link profile.

"we are looking to keep our domain but create a new site to disavow all our links. " - If you start up a new site on the same domain then you'll still have all of the same bad backlinks that got you into Penguin trouble so you won't be any further ahead.  EDIT:  That is, assuming that most of your links point to your home page.  If you have bad links pointing to inner pages then you can change those urls and effectively remove those bad links.  But, in most cases the bad links are pointing to the home page and those can't be removed by changing the site.

[jesse-landry]

I will write a brief response not covering all my thoughts (due to time, sorry) -

Disavowing all links will not be enough to lift a site wide penalty. Tactics change depending upon whether this was a manual action or algorithmic penalty. Do you have any messages in GWT?

You need to make real, documented efforts to manually remove each and every bad link you have pointing at your site. There are many guides to how to do this and even a definitive guide on the Moz blog currently that works very well. The jest of it is you need to request each link be removed, remove it yourself, and document yourself along the way. Take screenshots of contact forms filled out on domains in question, keep email copies, and organize spreadsheets. Submit all of this to Google as a reconsideration package and only disavow those that never respond after multiple requests.

If it isn't manual and isn't site-wide, simply changing site structure and all URLs MIGHT potentially work, huge emphasis on MIGHT.

But the one thing that is for sure is your best bet is to start removing those links while shifting your efforts to a true SEM campaign and producing quality content to build organic links.

Read around and listen to the awesome people in this community. Check the blogs! You can do this!

[crackingmedia]

Hi Steve

Others will comment on this I am sure and how effective your strategy may be. The article here may also help you.

Peter