Google Webmaster Tools notice of detected unnatural links ...

[imrubbish]

I was all prepared to shout down your answer as i just could not see how going on like nothing has happened will help.

But you make some very very valid points and as such we have decided to "try" get rid of 20-30 of the definitely crappy links that offer no value, tidy up the blog posts - delete the really rubbish blog posts and start building some better content and better links. But crucially we will not do a resubmit request.

[waqid]

Here is a suggestion. I had the same issue with one of my clients. We added the client to some human edited directories and after about 30 days we were back on our rankings. You are going to need to browse this site for a list of Human Edited Directories and sort through them. These sites are not cheap, you will spend anywhere from 20-300 per submission. Most being permanent listings.A few annual and very few monthly.

[David1234]

Tried that waqid. Was expensive and still our rankings are terrible since 3 weeks after getting the letter. Maybe cause yahoo and botw for instance saw fit to place us on some regional pr0 page that gets cached once a decade. Seems awfully unfair to penalize a site for things they might not have caused, or be able to control.

[David1234]

Is there some certain way to know if youve got a penalty when rankings drop after getting this letter? Is it worth sending for reconsideration if youve got a good website?

[dohertyjf]

David -

What's your definition of a "good website"? If traffic has dropped 75%, Google has lost faith in your site and something has gone horribly wrong, thus your site is no longer considered "good" in their eyes. If you've done any unnatural linkbuilding (any comment spam or bought links), you need to get as many of these removed, or at least let Google know about it so that you can get back in the index.

There is no way, beyond being notified in GWT of unnatural links being detected and seeing a drop in traffic/rankings, to know for certain that a manual penalty has been applied. Usually you will receive a notice in GWT when this happens, though. Otherwise it's algorithmic.

[David1234]

Hi John,

Well naturally, my definition of a 'good website' will be biased. However there are no GWT reported onsite issues, no coding/browser issues, 100% original content, low bounce rate and a high % or returning visitors. We only received the GWT notice of unnatural links and 3 weeks later found quite a large drop in most but not all, rankings. Does this mean it's an algorithmic penalty and if so, how long will it last? We didnt publish any unnatural links on blog networks ourselves, but an seo company we paid money to did, and they have not responded to any of our requests for removal of those links. Ive been able to email some blogs and get a positive removal but the majority have not responded, and there are hundreds.

[David1234]

Any comments/suggestions? How long will this stupid penalty last? We never even created the bad links and cant get them removed.

[dohertyjf]

Hey David -

It all depends on how long it takes for the reinclusion request to process, if your rankings have indeed tanked. If you didn't build the links, be sure to talk about this prominently in your reinclusion request. Other than that, honestly, make a stink and get on Google's radar. If it's a case of negative SEO, then we need to make Google aware of it.

[David1234]

Hey John -

I'm really not convinced there was any negative seo in the sense that the term is being meant of late. I believe our past seo company built blog network links without consulting us. The foreign porn site links are more of a mystery. I'm reluctant to submit a reinclusion request in case they manually make rankings worse, what do you think about that idea? Our site has not tanked, but all major KWs have dropped 5-10 spots. A couple havent budged since getting the letter.

[dohertyjf]

David -

Thank you for explaining more clearly, it's really appreciated!

If all major keywords have dropped 5-10 spots, it seems that your traffic must be down quite a bit, not to mention brand exposure.

I would submit a reinclusion request. I would be totally transparent, tell them what you have done to try to get the links removed, but also tell them that you did not build these links. Show them what links you are responsible for.

Unfortunately there is no way to know how long it will take for your client to recover. It's possible that they will be sandboxed for a while. What I would recommend doing is moving forward to building really good links for them, trying to get good press coverage, and try to get in contact with someone on the spam team to review your case.

John