Google Penalty - Has It Been Lifted?

[Webpresence]

Hi,

We have been trying to remove a ‘partial’ google penalty for a new client by the way of removing unnatural backlinks over a period of time and then submitting a reconsideration request, and uploading a disavow file etc.

Previously Google listed the partial penalty in the ‘manual actions’ section of webmaster tools, making it possible for us to submit a reconsideration request.

Having just logged in however we get the message ‘no manual webspam actions found’. So there isn’t any way we can submit a reconsideration request.

Does this mean that the penalty has been lifted? Or could it still exist? If the latter is there any other way to submit a reconsideration request?

Many thanks in advance, Lee.

[KarlBantleman]

Google usually gives a message saying they've lifted the penalty, something like "previously the webspam team took action on your website but we've now lifted this..." Did you not get one?

[Webpresence]

Many thanks for the response Karl, appreciated!

No such message, no. I thought that google would have sent us this kind of message too, they have in the past.

The last response we received from them was in April saying that the reconsideration request had failed as there were still artificial links pointing to the site. We've spent a lot of time and money trying to get them removed since, but are now unable to send a new reconsideration request.

The only thing I can think of is that Google are eventually taking notice of our disavow file, but that's only a guess.

If anyone else can shed some light on this that would be great, we're just not sure if it's worth spending more resources on the link audit and removal process.. if the penalty has been lifted there isn't much point.

Very confused!

Lee.

[KarlBantleman]

What does your link profile look like without the websites that have been disavowed? Is it quite bare now? When we undertook penalised websites we carried on building high quality links to try and put the balance in our favour, have you done likewise?

It does seem odd how the message is no longer there and they are saying there is no manual action. Have you considered an algorithm penalty maybe? duplicate content? That's a possibility.

[Webpresence]

Thanks again Karl,

Their backlink profile now looks limited, but natural if the disavowed links are taken away.

We are outreaching to build quality links to address the balance, and participating on social media etc.

It wasn't an alogorithmic penalty as it was listed in the 'manual sections' of WMT's.. and there's no duplicate content.

It's all guess work at the moment, we have no idea if our disavow file has been considered, or if the penalty still exists! Organic traffic has increased slightly but that may just be down to our recent on-page and off-page work.

All the best, Lee.

[MarieHaynes]

Your penalty probably expired.  This has been happening frequently so I wrote about it on Search Engine Watch: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2345875/Did-Your-Manual-Penalty-Disappear-It-Probably-Expired.

You still want to make sure you do a thorough cleanup as these penalties can either return (if you haven't cleaned up) or the problems that got you there can contribute to problems with the Penguin algorithm.

[Webpresence]

Well that explains that then Marie! Many thanks

I have read your article (impressive!) and everything now makes sense, we can stop wandering!

I'll share your article on Twitter shortly (@webpresenceUK).. the least we can do.

Thanks again, you really have helped.

Lee.

[MarieHaynes]

Thanks Lee.