Google Penalty Recovery - A few points everyone should know
- SEO |
There's has been a lot of confusions surrounding Google manual penalty, penguin algorithmic penalty, disavow, reconsideration request etc. and the exact sequence of things to be done. So let me explain a few things that everyone should know. This is just an overview and a very in-depth understanding and several hours of manual work is needed to revoke these penalties.
1. My site has received Manual Webspam action from Google
Many webmasters think that a sudden drop in organic traffic is Google manual penalty. You can find whether your site has received manual penalty only in Webmasters Tools. Go to Search Traffic-->Manual Actions. You can find whether your site has received any manual penalty here.
Badlinks from irrelevant sites, other languages sites, article directories, paid links, low quality directories, PR sites, Social bookmarking, Site wide links, Link farms, reciprocal links, 3way links etc. are the main reason for manual action. The sites that receive manual action may suffer nearly 100% loss in organic traffic. There's no quick fix solution to this. But following a sequence of steps will help in revoking the penalty.
Step 1: Backlink audit
Collect all your backlinks from Google Webmasters Tool, ahrefs, majestic SEO etc. Start by analyzing each backlinks. Create an excel sheet and categorize all those links. Use your best judgement in this process and take time in completing this as this is the base for a successful penalty removal
Step 2: Anchor text audit
For some sites, this may be an important factor that has brought the penalty. Analyze the anchor text density and in an excel sheet categorize them. Use a pie chart or word tag to analyze the top anchor texts and analyze the density of the anchor texts. If this is high, it has to be diluted.
Step 3: Collecting Contact Details
Many do step 1 and 2 and then straightaway jump to Disavow and reconsideration. This strategy won't help you in the recovery. You will definitely see a rejection message from Google. Google wants the webmasters to try hard to remove those bad links and hence a reconsideration request with just a disavow won't help. To contact webmasters, we need to collect the contact details using WhoIs, social media accounts, contact form etc.
Step 4: Link removal request
Once you have the contact details of webmasters in hand, start sending them a mail explaining the situation you're in and request them to remove those links for you. Also send them a few sample links. Be polite in your approach and don't try to threaten them. If a particular link sends you good amount of referral traffic, request the webmaster to put a "rel=nofollow" attribute to the link. Also if there's a problem regarding the anchor text ask the webmaster to change it for you. Provide the anchor text you wish to be replaced with. Create a Google docs file and populate it with the contact details of the webmasters and date of contact. If you contact via contact form, take a screenshot of it.
Step 5: Reminder mails
Many won't respond to the link removal request. But is a must to send a reminder e-mail about your request twice. Give at least 4 days gap between reminder mails. Document all these notes in the above mentioned docs file. This docs file is a must and you need to send this docs to Google to show that you really worked hard to clean up the mess.
Step 6: Creating the disavow file
After a couple of days after the last reminder mail, create a disavow file in the format prescribed by Google. Improperly formatted file won't be accepted in Webmasters tools. You can find the formatting tips in this infographic image [http://www.submitinme.com/news/newsdetails-330.aspx]. Disavowing entire domains instead of individual links gives good results.
Step 7: Reconsideration Request
From manual actions tab in Google Webmasters Tools, select request for review. Explain each steps you have taken to remove the bad links. Provide a link to the docs file where you have documented your efforts in contacting webmasters (Change the sharing setting to "Access to anyone with the link"). Mention the filename of your disavow file. Accept that what you have done is wrong and assure Google that you won't do this again. Also explain the immediate actions you're going to take to improve your site.
There are cases where the reconsideration request has been accepted in the first attempt and there are other cases where manual penalty has been revoked after 2-3 reconsideration requests.
2. I suspect a Google algorithmic penalty
If there's a sudden dip in organic traffic without a manual action, chances are that you may be affected by penguin algorithmic penalty. (There's a BIG Panda also and it is a complete different type of penalty. In this let's discuss only backlink based penalties). For an algorithmic penalty, it is not necessary to follow all the above steps. Conduct a backlink and anchor text audit. If you need to put rel=nofollow or change the anchor text of links, contact the webmasters. If not, directly disavow all the bad links using the disavow tool. You can't send a reconsideration request if there's no manual penalty.
3. I don't have a penalty
Even if a site doesn't got hit by penalties, it is highly advisable to conduct regular backlink audit to ensure that you're safe. There are cases where your competitor has built spammy links to your site.
4. I haven't regained my lost rankings after recovery
This is very common because the very link that has brought you a penalty is also a reason for your rankings. Once you remove or disavow those types of links, it'll take some time for the site to come up in rankings. Once you've submitted the reconsideration request, you can start working on your site.
FREE Manual
We've prepared "Google Penalty prevention and Recovery Manual". It explains the above process in detail with screenshots of the exact process. You can access it by following the link below. Read and Share.
http://www.submitinme.com/e-books/do...Prevention.pdf
1. My site has received Manual Webspam action from Google
Many webmasters think that a sudden drop in organic traffic is Google manual penalty. You can find whether your site has received manual penalty only in Webmasters Tools. Go to Search Traffic-->Manual Actions. You can find whether your site has received any manual penalty here.
Badlinks from irrelevant sites, other languages sites, article directories, paid links, low quality directories, PR sites, Social bookmarking, Site wide links, Link farms, reciprocal links, 3way links etc. are the main reason for manual action. The sites that receive manual action may suffer nearly 100% loss in organic traffic. There's no quick fix solution to this. But following a sequence of steps will help in revoking the penalty.
Step 1: Backlink audit
Collect all your backlinks from Google Webmasters Tool, ahrefs, majestic SEO etc. Start by analyzing each backlinks. Create an excel sheet and categorize all those links. Use your best judgement in this process and take time in completing this as this is the base for a successful penalty removal
Step 2: Anchor text audit
For some sites, this may be an important factor that has brought the penalty. Analyze the anchor text density and in an excel sheet categorize them. Use a pie chart or word tag to analyze the top anchor texts and analyze the density of the anchor texts. If this is high, it has to be diluted.
Step 3: Collecting Contact Details
Many do step 1 and 2 and then straightaway jump to Disavow and reconsideration. This strategy won't help you in the recovery. You will definitely see a rejection message from Google. Google wants the webmasters to try hard to remove those bad links and hence a reconsideration request with just a disavow won't help. To contact webmasters, we need to collect the contact details using WhoIs, social media accounts, contact form etc.
Step 4: Link removal request
Once you have the contact details of webmasters in hand, start sending them a mail explaining the situation you're in and request them to remove those links for you. Also send them a few sample links. Be polite in your approach and don't try to threaten them. If a particular link sends you good amount of referral traffic, request the webmaster to put a "rel=nofollow" attribute to the link. Also if there's a problem regarding the anchor text ask the webmaster to change it for you. Provide the anchor text you wish to be replaced with. Create a Google docs file and populate it with the contact details of the webmasters and date of contact. If you contact via contact form, take a screenshot of it.
Step 5: Reminder mails
Many won't respond to the link removal request. But is a must to send a reminder e-mail about your request twice. Give at least 4 days gap between reminder mails. Document all these notes in the above mentioned docs file. This docs file is a must and you need to send this docs to Google to show that you really worked hard to clean up the mess.
Step 6: Creating the disavow file
After a couple of days after the last reminder mail, create a disavow file in the format prescribed by Google. Improperly formatted file won't be accepted in Webmasters tools. You can find the formatting tips in this infographic image [http://www.submitinme.com/news/newsdetails-330.aspx]. Disavowing entire domains instead of individual links gives good results.
Step 7: Reconsideration Request
From manual actions tab in Google Webmasters Tools, select request for review. Explain each steps you have taken to remove the bad links. Provide a link to the docs file where you have documented your efforts in contacting webmasters (Change the sharing setting to "Access to anyone with the link"). Mention the filename of your disavow file. Accept that what you have done is wrong and assure Google that you won't do this again. Also explain the immediate actions you're going to take to improve your site.
There are cases where the reconsideration request has been accepted in the first attempt and there are other cases where manual penalty has been revoked after 2-3 reconsideration requests.
2. I suspect a Google algorithmic penalty
If there's a sudden dip in organic traffic without a manual action, chances are that you may be affected by penguin algorithmic penalty. (There's a BIG Panda also and it is a complete different type of penalty. In this let's discuss only backlink based penalties). For an algorithmic penalty, it is not necessary to follow all the above steps. Conduct a backlink and anchor text audit. If you need to put rel=nofollow or change the anchor text of links, contact the webmasters. If not, directly disavow all the bad links using the disavow tool. You can't send a reconsideration request if there's no manual penalty.
3. I don't have a penalty
Even if a site doesn't got hit by penalties, it is highly advisable to conduct regular backlink audit to ensure that you're safe. There are cases where your competitor has built spammy links to your site.
4. I haven't regained my lost rankings after recovery
This is very common because the very link that has brought you a penalty is also a reason for your rankings. Once you remove or disavow those types of links, it'll take some time for the site to come up in rankings. Once you've submitted the reconsideration request, you can start working on your site.
FREE Manual
We've prepared "Google Penalty prevention and Recovery Manual". It explains the above process in detail with screenshots of the exact process. You can access it by following the link below. Read and Share.
http://www.submitinme.com/e-books/do...Prevention.pdf