I WON My Google Reconsideration Request!

[bhuff85]

A lot of you may know that about a month and a half ago, some of my largest Adsense websites were de-indexed overnight with no valid explanation. After thorough research, I could not find any "true" reason as to why they were gone.

I shared my experience here with everyone at the WF, and while everyone had their opinions, I was still certain I hadn't did anything to violate rules. I follow a strict process in building out my websites with top-quality content, as well as using proper backlinking methods. Plus, I only lost a few of my sites and not all of them, which led me to believe there was some kind of manual action taken. The cause for it, however, was still unsolved.

So, I filed a reconsideration request. Didn't hear anything back forever, and I thought I was doomed. I even sat back and gave up on Adsense for awhile, just because this was a big blow to me and my business plan.

During the process, I would still check my Adsense account periodically. So today, I logged in just like any other day and noticed that my earnings were practically back to where they used to be when I had those de-indexed sites. Traffic was there and money was there.

I thought I was dreaming.

Sure enough, I log into Google Webmaster Tools and see a message that says "Manual Spam Action Revoked".

Yep - ALL OF MY DE-INDEXED SITES ARE NOW BACK, EARNING MONEY AND EVEN WENT DAMN NEAR CLOSE TO THE RANKINGS THEY HAD BEFORE!

Want to know the reason why a manual spam action was taken against me? I'll tell you this:

- It wasn't because I had "low quality, spammy Adsense sites"
- It wasn't because I was linking to "bad neighborhoods"
- It wasn't due to any host, malware or any other related issues

You know the real reason? Someone (most likely a competitor) decided to report one of my websites as "spam".

The scary part? It took TWO reconsideration requests to get Google to believe that I wasn't doing anything wrong. So, they essentially took the request and dropped a ton of sites. I wonder if they even looked at the sites when they did it.

Regardless, I have to say that I'm happy that I beat this and rode it out. Sometimes you gotta keep fighting when you know you've been punished for something you didn't do. Today is a damn good day, and now I can finally shift my focus back to these sites and continue to build them out to increase their earnings from here on out.

Hopefully this will show those out there that if you follow the rules and still manage to get hit with something like I did, just be persistent and keep fighting. It took me awhile, but I'm so glad I've got everything back.

Now, it's back to business

[yukon]

Good job!

That's a bit scary that someone can report a site & get them deindexed, are you 100% sure that was the reason for your sites being deindexed?

[kindsvater]

Congrats.

If you believed everything from Google, such as remarks by Matt Cutts, this wouldn't happen.

Manual reviews simply invite problems and subjective delistings that depend on whoever is doing the reviewing.

.

[deepsand]

Congrats! I have never heard of a site being reconsidered, everyone I have run across have never been able to do it. Hats off to you and very commendable, your the first I know of, so I know now it is possible for those that have been trying.

[bhuff85]

Originally Posted by yukon

Good job!

That's a bit scary that someone can report a site & get them deindexed, are you 100% sure that was the reason for your sites being deindexed?

Yeah - the message I received was that "somone had reported it as a spam website". My guess is that it HAD to be a competitor. Either way, it IS scary that the first time around they dismissed it and not only eliminated that, but a few others based on that ONE site.

Thankfully, my second request must have fallen on someone who was a little more in tune with the process and they revoked it. It's a great feeling to be back in it and have everything back again!

[yukon]

Originally Posted by bhuff85

Yeah - the message I received was that "somone had reported it as a spam website". My guess is that it HAD to be a competitor. Either way, it IS scary that the first time around they dismissed it and not only eliminated that, but a few others based on that ONE site.

Thankfully, my second request must have fallen on someone who was a little more in tune with the process and they revoked it. It's a great feeling to be back in it and have everything back again!

A lot of competition will try to get you in trouble with Adsense.

My brother has been getting click bombed on Youtube, we think it's his competition doing it.

Listen to this funny s%#t.

My brother adds about 5 videos per day to Youtube, he creates & owns 100% of the video content he uploads. He follows Adsense/Youtube TOS to every small detail.

He has been getting Youtube messages from other Youtube Users/Competition (not Youtube), asking him to "Please STOP posting so many videos"!

LMAO, are they high?

This world is full of crazy people.

[James-]

Great news! That really is quite worrying though that if someone did report it as spam google just went along with it without looking into your site properly.

[bhuff85]

Originally Posted by yukon

He has been getting Youtube messages from other Youtube Users/Competition (not Youtube), asking him to "Please STOP posting so many videos"!

LMAO, are they high?

This world is full of crazy people.

Haha. Some people's kids...

On another note - Now that I've got my sites back, I think it's time to start to implement your little Feedburner/Adsense method that I had been reading about earlier this week

[MikeFriedman]

That is exactly why I keep telling people to stop spamming blogs with nonsensical comments. All it takes is for one pissed off webmaster to report your site (and don't think you are safe behind a link pyramid. It just takes a few clicks to get to your site.) and someone to review the spam report who does not look at it closely or is a little happy on the penalty button, and you can end up screwed.

People can and do report sites.

And I'm not implying that you were spamming other sites.

[fastlancer]

I can sympathize, had similar problem with google. it seems there are some uppidy people there, but still congrats!

[bhuff85]

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

That is exactly why I keep telling people to stop spamming blogs with nonsensical comments. All it takes is for one pissed off webmaster to report your site (and don't think you are safe behind a link pyramid. It just takes a few clicks to get to your site.) and someone to review the spam report who does not look at it closely or is a little happy on the penalty button, and you can end up screwed.

People can and do report sites.

And I'm not implying that you were spamming other sites.

Yeah - I'm not too huge on the blog comments. I might do a few every now and them, but that's usually if the site is relevant (at least I can get some traffic out of the effort, too).

You're right now - people can easily report sites. I'm just still in awe that Google finally listened and I won the fight.

[JoshuaG]

Its so reassuring to hear a success story like this. It seems like there is a new post here almost everyday by someone who had their sites de-indexed, account banned, etc.

Congratulations, enjoy your renewed earnings!

[100KAffiliateManager]

Congrats and good work persevering! It seems like it is the rare case when someone can actually get to the bottom of why they were banned in the first place. SO happy to hear that you are back up and running strong!!

[IamTJM]

Kind of scary to think that you can be shut down by a competitor as easy as that, but at least you were able to get back in business!

[36burrows]

That's great news man! I'm glad you're back in business.

It's nice to get a win every once in awhile.

[bhuff85]

Originally Posted by JoshuaG

Its so reassuring to hear a success story like this. It seems like there is a new post here almost everyday by someone who had their sites de-indexed, account banned, etc.

Congratulations, enjoy your renewed earnings!

That's what I'm saying. I hear of it all of the time. In most cases, there is a strong reason why a site is de-indexed or why someone is banned from anything. For those who got hit like I did and weren't doing anything wrong and were actually following the quality guidelines that Google sets, I hope that this experience will give them some hope.

[outwest]

congrats
........................

[xylement]

wow... this indeed was a great news... a rare one.. congratulations on getting back ur site up again!

[smith47]

I had similar experience and my site was not indexed for about a month. I recevied this message from Google webmaster tools today...

"Previously the webspam team had taken manual action on your site because we believed it violated our quality guidelines. After reviewing your reconsideration request, we have revoked this manual action. It may take some time before our indexing and ranking systems are updated to reflect the new status of your site."

Does this really mean I'm good to go?

[kviv23]

congrats buddy!!! wish you all the success.

[uoftenwinny]

Great.
wish you all the best. Sure your hard work is admitted.

[Steadyon]

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

That is exactly why I keep telling people to stop spamming blogs with nonsensical comments. All it takes is for one pissed off webmaster to report your site (and don't think you are safe behind a link pyramid. It just takes a few clicks to get to your site.) and someone to review the spam report who does not look at it closely or is a little happy on the penalty button, and you can end up screwed.

People can and do report sites.

And I'm not implying that you were spamming other sites.

If this was true, then a slight variation on negative SEO is to leave some crappy spammy comments with a link back to the competitor.

Then complain to google about your competitors spammy link comment. This may then attract a manual review and if this was the only factor the Google Reviewer needed, he could penalise the site.

They could easily do this. But would they?

[scottmacair]

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

That is exactly why I keep telling people to stop spamming blogs with nonsensical comments. All it takes is for one pissed off webmaster to report your site (and don't think you are safe behind a link pyramid. It just takes a few clicks to get to your site.) and someone to review the spam report who does not look at it closely or is a little happy on the penalty button, and you can end up screwed.

People can and do report sites.

And I'm not implying that you were spamming other sites.

Great comment - spamming is dangerous for many reasons and this one isn't so obvious.

[nik0]

Pretty awesome you got your rankings back. Congratulations!

[msu]

Congrats to you for taking action - and for sharing it on WF, this is bound to help someone else out in a tight spot. At least they wait for two reports, rather than just one.