Google Reconsideration - Denied for the Third Time
-
I have been in the process of trying to get past a "link scheme" penalty for just over a year. I took on the client in April 2012, they had received their penalty in February of 2012 before i started.
Since then we have been trying to manually remove links, contact webmasters for link removal, blocking over 40 different domains via the disavow tool and requesting reconsideration multiple times. All i get in return "Site violates Google's quality guidelines."
So we regrouped and did some more research to find that about 90% of the offending spam links pointed to only 3 pages of the website so we decided to just delete the pages, display a 404 error in their place and create new pages with new URLs. At first everything was looking good, the new pages were ranking and receiving page authority and the old pages were gone from the indexes. So we resubmitted for reconsideration for the third time and we got the same exact response!
I don't know what else to do? I did everything i could think of with the exception of deleting the whole site.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Regards - Kyle
-
Kyle, interesting... I knew that is not possible. Do you have a lot of high quality backlinks left or did you start building new ones?
-
Hi Traian - i would have to disagree.
With the advice mentioned above from both Cyrus and Marie i was able to get the penalty lifted and whether it was normal or not my rankings and traffic have bounced back to exactly where they were if not higher than before the penalty.
-
when you removed those backlinks, you don't get to rank as before the penalty. those bad links were keeping you up and now you need to work your way up again, only that this time way, way more carefully than before...
-
Good job Kyle! I would take things one step further though. It is likely not enough to just disavow the domains. If you haven't already done so, make sure that you make efforts to manually get these links removed and then communicate this to Google.
-
Wow, thank you so much for all your guys help!
I just spent all day digging through the full link profile (combined from GWT and OSE) and i have more than doubled my domains in my disavow list. I have been surprised by the amount of domains that have simply expired over the course of this project.
Also, thank you for the pointer on hosting the process files on Google docs for the reconsideration, i was wondering where i would keep that!
I'll keep you all up-to-date as well as contribute to a blog post if you guys would like too.
Thanks again - Kyle
-
Hi Kyle,
First of all, I can't wait for Marie's book! I don't want to recover any ground that she's already gone over, so I'll just share a few thoughts.
1. Has Google verified it's a link penalty? "Site violates Google's quality guidelines" could also refer to on-site issues like hidden text or doorway pages. Given the information you provided, it's most likely a link based penalty, but you never know.
2. Not sure from your description, but I almost always disavow entire domains using the domain: command instead of individual URLs. I've seen requests rejected because they disavowed not enough URLs when they should have blocked the entire domain.
3. I agree with Marie. If you've been penalized, it's generally safer to error on the side of disavowing too many domains than not enough. This isn't to say you should disavow known good links, but if links are questionable, why take a chance.
4. Also agree with Marie on submitting documentation about your removal efforts. Wrote a post about it here: http://cyrusshepard.com/penalty-lifted/
(they tend to like everything in Google Docs files. Cuts down the risk of spam)
5. Minor point, but Google likes everything formatted in a UTF-8 encoded .txt file. I've never seen one rejected because of this, but I hear it happens.
6. I'm turning into a fan of Link Detox for toxic link discovery. Instead of running it in standard mode, upload a file of your complete backlink profile from Webmaster Tools and have Link Detox check those links. Sort the final list by hand - this means check each link! For hints, read Paddy Moogan's post about low quality links: http://www.stateofsearch.com/step-by-step-guide-finding-low-quality-links/
Damn, we should turn this into a blog post!
Hope this helps!
-
You know what Cyrus? I kid you not...this afternoon I suddenly got this thought that I should send you a copy once I got it finished. I know you have been involved in unnatural links cleanup. I'll be in touch!
-
Hi Marie,
Please let us all know when you finish the book!
-
Hey Marie - thanks for the details, i will let you know what else i find!
-
Yes, definitely. These need to be removed if possible and disavowed.
-
I generally create a Google Doc spreadsheet with my links and then have columns where I enter email addresses found on site, whois addresses and url of contact form. Then, I have columns next to those for reference numbers. Those reference numbers refer to a separate document in which I include the original source code of each email sent as well as a document with screenshots of contact forms submitted. It's a pain to do all of this but I have been successful in every single attempt at reconsideration using this method.
If you're interested, I am 95% finished writing a book on the process that I use to get rid of unnatural links penalties. You can contact me via my profile and I can send you my almost finished book at a discounted price. It does include a link to an example of the spreadsheet that I use.
-
Do you think this type of microblogging URL would be considered spam:
http://olcine.com/index.php/steffcolbere
Should i disavow these sites as well?
-
Marie, thanks for the tip on the total disavowed, i am currently in the process of downloading my link profiles from OSE and GWT to look over it again.
As for communicating i haven't submitted a document saying who i have contacted, how would you suggest documenting that? Do you have an example document to share?
-
Nick, what did your request look like when you got approved? An specifics you can share?
-
Thanks for the pointers on # of links in GWT, I will dig in deeper and see the trends over the last few months. As for the reconsideration request, do you have an examples of what people submitted that got approved?
-
Hi Kyle. The process is frustrating, isn't it?
I have a few thoughts for you. You mentioned that you disavowed over 40 different domains. That doesn't sound like many. Many sites that I have worked on have had hundreds and hundreds of domains that needed disavowing. It's possible that you haven't identified enough links as unnatural. In other words, it may be that Google wants you to address some links that you think could be natural but actually do go against the quality guidelines.
I've also seen sites fail at reconsideration because the disavow file was not properly formatted.
How well did you communicate your attempts at link removal to Google? If you have contacted webmasters and failed to get links removed then you need to document that well to Google.
-
I also agree with highland, you have to submit a file that shows all your work.
-
We have recovered from a manual link spam penalty about 2 weeks ago after 5 months of cleaning up stuff. I have cleaned about 85% of the links and submitted a recon. and 3 days later i got a message that said the MANUAL penalty was revoked.
Even though it s been 2 weeks we still have not seen any improvement on the rankings. We are now working on getting quality links .
I felt the same way back in January but kept at it. So clean up more if you can and give it another shot.
good luck I feel your pain.
Nick
-
Make it a point to check Google WMT to see if number of external links is declining. If the number is rising or staying constant, i would check the disavow file to make sure you are indeed capturing all spam domains.
I have found that a great reinclusion request can do the trick. The request should note what your wrongdoings where, what was your remediation, time spent and percentage of success. You should also apologize and your promise to be good.
-
Hmm. Well, the only other thing I could recommend would be reading this post on the matter. To summarize a bit, Google wants to see what you've done to fix the problem. Document what you've done and plead your case.
-
Highland, yes we have utilized it quite heavily with submitting over 40 different FULL domains not just urls.
-
Have you tried the disavow links tool? I know many people who have fought manual penalties and they have expressed that it's invaluable in getting rid of them.
-
I just don't think that is the right move, we still hold rankings for other pages, it just seems to be keyword/page specific some how
-
I know this may not be what you want to hear but it might make sense to start over. New domain and website. To be completely rid of the old site is a hard but necessary move.
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
-
Does google ignore ? in url?
Hi Guys, Have a site which ends ?v=6cc98ba2045f for all its URLs. Example: https://domain.com/products/cashmere/robes/?v=6cc98ba2045f Just wondering does Google ignore what is after the ?. Also any ideas what that is? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CarolynSC0 -
Link from Google.com
Hi guys I've just seen a website get a link from Google's Webmaster Snippet testing tool. Basically, they've linked to a results page for their own website test. Here's an example of what this would look like for a result on my website. http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.impression.co.uk There's a meta nofollow, but I just wondered what everyone's take is on Trust, etc, passing down? (Don't worry, I'm not encouraging people to go out spamming links to results pages!) Looking forward to some interesting responses!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | tomcraig860 -
Google does not favour php websites?
Hi there. An SEO company recently told me that google does not favour php development? This seems rather sketchy, I have not read that google doesn't favour this anywhere, did I just miss that part of SEO or are these guys blowing a little smoke?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ProsperoDigital1 -
Why is my site not getting crawled by google?
Hi Moz Community, I have an escort directory website that is built out of ajax. We basically followed all the recommendations like implementing the escaped fragment code so Google would be able to see the content. Problem is whenever I submit my sitemap on Google webmastertool it always 700 had been submitted and only 12 static pages had been indexed. I did the site query and only a number of pages where indexed. Does it have anything to do with my site being on HTTPS and not on HTTP? My site is under HTTPS and all my content is ajax based. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | en-gageinc0 -
Google Tag Manager
Has anyone used Google Tag Manager and do you feel it is worth it?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ChristinaRadisic0 -
Are links that are disavowed with Google Webmaster Tools removed from the Google Webmaster Profile for the domain?
Hi, Two part question - First, are links that you disavow using google webmaster tools ever removed from the webmaster tools account profile ? Second, when you upload a file to disavow links they ask if you'd like to replace the previously uploaded file. Does that mean if you don't replace the file with a new file that contains the previously uploaded urls those urls are no longer considered disavowed? So, should we download the previous disavow file first then append the new disavow urls to the file before uploading or should we just upload a new file that contains only the new disavow urls? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bgs0 -
Google and private networks?
I have one or two competitors (in the UK) in my field who buy expired 1 - 8 year old domains on random subjects (SEO, travel, health you name it) and they are in the printing business and they stick 1 - 2 articles (unrelated to what was on there before) on these and that's it. I think they stick with PA and DA above 30 and most have 10 – 100 links so well used expired domains, hosted in the USA and most have different Ip’s although they now have that many (over 70% of their backlink profile) that some have the same ip. On further investigation none of the blogs have any contact details but it does look like they have been a little smart here and added content to the about us (similar to I use to run xxx but now do xxx) also they have one or two tabs with content on (article length) that is on the same subject they use to do and the titles are all the same content. So basically they are finding expired 1 – 10 year old domains that have only been expired (from what I can see) 6 months max and putting 1 – 2 articles on the home page in relation with print (maybe adding a third on the subject the blog use to cover), add 1 – 3 articles via tabs at the top on subjects the sites use to cover, registering the details via xbybssgcf@whoisprivacyprotect.com and that’s it. They have been ranking via this method for the last couple of years (through all the Google updates) and still do extremely well. Does Google not have any way to combat link networks other than the stupid stuff such as public link networks, it just seems that if you know what you are doing you get away, if your big enough you get away with it but the middle of the ground (mum and pop sites) get F*** over with spam pointing to there site that no spammer would dream of doing anyway?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobAnderson0 -
Does Google punish sites for Backlinks?
Here is Matt Cutts video, for those of you who have not seen it already. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4dAWb5jUws (Very Short) In this Video Matt explains that Google does not look at backlinks. Many link spamming sites have detected, there have been many website receiving warning messages in their Google web tools to deindex these links, etc.. My theory is that Google will not punish sites for backlinks. However, they manually check for "link farming sites" and warn anyone affiliated with them, just in case these links were built from a competitor. This way they can eliminate all the "Bad Link Farm" sites and not hurt anyone who does not deserve to be hurt. Google is not going to give us all their information to rank, they dont want us to rank. They want us to PPC. However, they do want to have the best SERPs available. I call it Google juggling! Thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEODinosaur0