Proper Way To Submit A Reconsideration Request To Google

[BestOdds]

Hello,

In previous posts, I was speaking about how we were penalized by Google for unnatural links. Basically 50,000 our of our 58,000 links were coming from 4-5 sites with the same exact anchor text and img alt tags. This obviously was causing our issues. Needless to say, I wen through the complete link profile to determine that all of the links besides this were of natrural origins.

My question here is what is the accepted protocol of submitting a reinclusion request; For example, how long should it be? Should I disclose that I was in fact using paid links, and now that I removed (or at least nofollowed) them? I want to make sure that the request as good as it should so I can get our rankings up in a timely manner.

Also, how long until the request is typically aknowledged?

Thanks

[loopyal]

Honesty pays, I think. Google knows pretty much what you did. The engine guesses, but when a live body checks on your request, it's not likely you will fool them. They know which sites sell paid links. If someone else also paid for links from that site and they already did a reinclusion request and said they bought links from that site, you paint a target on yourself if you don't own up to it - unless you really didn't buy the links.

You could wait up to a month for any response, going on past history. Be sure you're disclosing everything you know about in one request. Don't think you can keep sending them in because, from what I've read, they will eventually stop listening.

I can't help you with protocol, other than to say spell it all out because they can't read your mind and expecting them to guess probably won't work in your favor.

[RobertFisher]

Daniel,

One thing that I know in terms of how timely is that it will depend as much on what you submit as it will on Google. First, you have to show what you have done to change the issue. If there are communications between you and a paid directory where you are not getting any response or action, show that communication. 
Avoid, the temptation to try to 'cosmetically' fix this by changing alt text, anchor text, etc. Remember, this will be looked at by humans. With it being four to five sites, your work should be easier so long as you have a lot of communication with the linking sites showing your efforts to end or ameliorate.

Alan is very correct when he says, "Don't think you can keep sending them in because, from what I've read, they will eventually st listening."

Get every duck in a row,

Make sure a bunch are gone, if, they are going to the trouble to nofollow, why not eliminate altogether?

No point saying, I asked them all but no one complied....

Only when there is massive evidence of your effort to fix it would I ask for reconsideration.

Good luck,

Robert

[MarieHaynes]

Good responses.  Here is what I would do if I were in your shoes.

I would start off with a humble sentence: "Hi Google team.  Thank you for receiving my reconsideration request.  I realize that some of my links were not in line with the Google Quality Guidelines.  In this document I have outlined what I have done to rectify that."

Then, I would list my links.  So I'd say, for example,

"There are 10,000 links that come from example1.com.  These were links that I previously paid for.  I now realize that this is against the quality guidelines and I have had those links removed (or nofollowed)."

I'd do the same thing for all of my bad links.

If I had any where I couldn't get the links removed or nofollowed I would say this:

"There are xxxx links from example2.com.  I have contacted the webmaster by sending an email to **admin@example1.com.  **Here is a copy of my email:....

...I also found this email in the WHOIS data for the site and sent an email which you can see here....

...I heard no response, so I used a contact form on the site and have yet to hear back from them.  "

I would make sure that I had an explanation for every single link pointing to my site.  I wouldn't try to hide anything.

I would end with something like this,

"Thanks again for considering my request.  From this point on I am committed to following the Quality Guidelines."

In the past it would take ages to get a response (and some webmasters never did) but Google has upgraded their response time.  Most requests now get a response within 3-14 days.

Good luck!

[BestOdds]

Thank you everyone for your responses, they are all very helpful. Just to inform you guys, all of my problems were stemming from these paid links. The rest of my link profile is pretty healthy. The reason I cannot get the links removed altogether for now is because the ad network that I used is holding me to a contract, until the end of September, then i'm obviously canning them. Do you think I should state that in the request as well, about the links are there (but nofollowed) because I have a contract I committed to, but they will be completely removed at the end of September? Or should I just say I had them nofollowed. I am lucky in the way that all my paid links came from one network, and they cleaned up all of them in a few days (I verified on several hundred pages. Basically 15000 links were spread over 4 sites with macpokeronline.com as the anchor and 35000 links on macobserver.com with image link alt text as macpokeronline, which hit us with penguin as well as the manual paid link penalty.

Thanks again, and i'll let you guys know how this pans out

[MarieHaynes]

I would definitely mention the fact that you are under contract.  I can't see any harm in it and it will probably look like a measure of good faith and honesty to Google that you are telling them everything.

[ShaMenz]

Hi Daniel,

I hope that by now your penalty situation has been resolved.

Was just a little concerned when I read this thread that there might be a little confusion over the need to remove those paid links from your site.

I just wanted to clear this up for any new people reading Q&A who might take away the wrong idea from the thread.

If the paid links are now nofollowed, you don't need to remove them (unless they are serving no other worthwhile purpose).

Matt Cutts talked about this in the webmaster help video Why do paid links violate Google's guidelines while other ads don't?

As Matt explains in the video, there is nothing wrong with having paid advertising on your site, as long as there is disclosure (usually in the form of a nofollow tag).

For those who might be reading this thread because they too are wondering what to include in a reconsideration request, we have created a Checklist on our site that might help. http://www.rmoov.com/google-reconsideration-request-checklist.php

Hope the penalty is now far behind you,

Sha