Did You Get One of These?

So Did Lots of Other Websites!

You’re actually in pretty good company. Some very big brands and massively popular websites have been hit with unnatural link penalties over the past couple of years. Some ventured into this forbidden territory very innocently, others were victims of “negative SEO” and still others were just plain caught trying to game the system.

OK, So You’re Not Alone, But That Doesn’t Help Much

Yes, misery loves company, but what you really want is a solution, not sympathy. Here’s what you need to do:

The Long and Tedious Road to Recovery…

First, get a list of all your backlinks. Start with the links you can find in your WMT account. Google has never been very good about giving you a complete picture of your backlinks so this will not likely be all of them, but it’s an important place to start. There are other places you can go to get more data on your links such as Open Site Explorer and Majestic SEO. Put all of the data into a spreadsheet where you can sort it easily.
Document Everything. For each step you perform, you need to keep a record of what you did, when you did it and what the results were. This will help you later on.
Analyze your backlinks. Flag your unnatural links and separate them from your legitimate links. Pay close attention to links with anchor text that matches your main money keywords. For example, if your site is about “blue widgets” links which have the anchor text of “blue widgets” should be flagged. You should consider unnatural most links that contain all of these properties:
- Anchor text which exactly matches your main keywords
- Have a “do follow” attribute
- Come from sites which have been de-indexed
- Come from pages which are nothing but lists of links
- Come from spammy blog comments
- Come from forum signatures
Ask for Removal. Contact the owners of the websites you have identified as containing the unnatural links and ask for the links to be removed. Be as specific as possible in your email with the exact page where your link is found and the anchor text of the link. Some site owners will want to charge you $5 or $10 for each link you want removed. It’s up to you whether you pay that or not, but we have successfully removed unnatural link penalties without paying these fees. Google will expect you to email each webmaster three times (usually over a three week period) asking for removal. Track email dates and responses. You can also ask the webmaster to add the “no follow” attribute to your link. This tells Google that the link is not there to manipulate rankings. Do this if the site is actually generating traffic for you.
Disavow Links You Cannot Get Removed. Now that links have power to hurt your site as well as help your site, Google has developed the “Disavow Tool”. This tool can be accessed from your WMT account and is used for telling Google to disregard links in the disavow file. It will take quite a bit of time for the links you upload to actually be “disavowed” by Google, so don’t expect immediate response.
Reconsideration Request. Once you have completed your link audit and removal and you’re satisfied that all of the unnatural links have been dealt with, then you can file a reconsideration request with the Google Search Quality Team. It’s important that you explain to Google how you got in this mess in the first place and that you don’t dodge responsibility for the problems. Google does not look fondly on webmasters who complain they have been unjustly targeted or are not responsible for the actions of an incompetent SEO firm. Take full responsibility. Then tell them what you’re going to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Second penalties are even more horrific than first ones! You’ll hear back usually in 2-4 weeks.

How Long Will The Entire Process Take?

Honestly, this is a complex process and will very likely take months, not days or weeks. So be prepared. You should have a plan B for generating traffic to your site. Usually Google Adwords will help tremendously, but it’s not without cost. Every website is different so you’ll have to evaluate the advisability of Google Adwords. We can help you make that evaluation. Just fill out the contact form or give us a call at 509-922-0535. We have a very simple process for predicting if a Google Adwords campaign will be profitable for you. You can read more about it on this page: https://www.mechamcompany.com/tool/pay-per-click/

What Kind of Results Should I Expect?

Your reconsideration request will receive one of three possible responses:

Manual Spam Action Revoked. This is the best result! This means that Google has reviewed your site and you have been given a clean bill of health. Onward! Forward! Upward! But be scrupulously careful to stay within Google’s guidelines. Second penalties are even more difficult to remove.

Penalty Modification. If you started out with a sitewide penalty, you can possibly receive a modification of that penalty to one which does not affect your site as a whole but only affects certain links which are pointing to you. While this is not the ultimate result you’re hoping for, it often allows a site to regain some of its rankings and traffic.
No Action. This is the worst result, but frankly this is the most frequent result. This is not an easy process and many, many webmasters fail at their first reconsideration request–and even their second or third. If you get this result, Google will respond and tell you that your site still violates their quality guidelines and your penalty is not lifted. All that work is not wasted however. You’ll have to go back to your carefully documented process and start again. This time, look at the links which have not been removed or disavowed and be more critical about getting rid of them. Go through the process again and submit a second reconsideration request.

A Word of Caution–if You Don’t Have a Manual Penalty

The dirty little secret here is that some links which might appear to be unnatural may actually be helping you. If you don’t have a manual penalty but have just experienced a drop in traffic and you’re thinking you’re suffering from a Panda or Penguin algorithm penalty, you need to be very careful about which links you remove or disavow. If you don’t have a manual penalty, process should be more scalpel than chainsaw. Be careful.

This is Not an Easy Process!

No, it’s not easy and in fact, that’s how Google likes it. If you’ve run afoul of their search quality guidelines far enough to receive a manual penalty for unnatural links, you’re going to be in “Google Hell” for a while. It’s possible to re-gain your former unblemished status, but it will take a tremendous amount of work and time. In fact, it takes so much tedious work that many companies are outsourcing this process. They let the professionals handle the whole mess, while they continue to do what they do best–run their businesses.

Let Us Handle This Mess For You

We have all the tools and the experience to make this process successful for you. This isn’t our first rodeo!

We’ll Analyze Your Situation and Give You A Custom Quote Before We Begin!

We’ll do the tedious, difficult work for you. We’ll analyze your links, go through the removal process, create your disavow file and submit your reconsideration request. We have all the expensive analytical tools to take this work to a level that will give you the best chance of recovery. Call or email us and we’ll do a quick evaluation of your penalty status and let you know right away what we think about your potential to be successful with a reconsideration request. Call 509-922-0535 or email us at cmecham@mechamcompany.com.

Or just fill out and submit the form below. We’ll respond within 24 hours.