Darren Varndell - SEO SoS: Search Engine Optimization First Aid Guide ePub Edition

Manual action s are very different from an Algorithmic penalty as a manual action is imposed directly by Googles web spam team, who constantly watch out for black hat techniques and will sanction webmasters who ha ve employed any technique that falls outside of Google s webmaster guidelines.

Here we will examine some of the more common manual action notices that you may receive, the effect it may have on your website health ( symptom ), why you have been sanctioned ( cause ), and steps you can take towards a solution and recovery ( treatment ).

Unnatural links to your site

Cause: Bad incoming links from irrelevant sites, other languages sites, spammy article directories, paid links, low quality directories, PR sites, and s ocial bookmarking. Could also include; s ite wide links, l ink farms, reciprocal links, and way link ing etc.

Symptom: If you have received this notice from Google then the chances are high that your website traffic must have fallen from the top of a cliff , and in my experience these sites witness a drop in organic traffic , in some cases , of over % . This is one notice that no webmaster would like to see in his lifetime as it is one of the most difficult, and time consuming, to deal with and effectively recover from, leading to a prolonged period of massively reduced traffic .

Treatment: There is no quick fix remedy or solution for this type of manual action . You need to do a backlink audit by downloading all of the incoming back links from Google webmaster tools by selecting Links to Your Site in the Search Traffic section , and clicking on the more. . link located underneath the area titled Who links the most . You will need to cleanup the bad quality links including; all irrelevant links, article links, paid links, low quality directories, PR sites, s ocial bookmarking, s ite wide links and l ink farms.

You will need to contact the webmasters or website owners of these bad links and request that they remove the se links. Follow up with an additional request in a couple of days if the link is not removed and send remainders.

Wait for around two weeks after your first link removal request date and then disavow all bad links using the Google disavow tool (see the next section Recovery & Reconsideration ) . After disavowing all of your bad links, s end a detailed reconsideration request to Google. The entire process may take a number of weeks before you can expect Google to take any action.

Warning : Do not disavow ALL of your incoming links . I f you do you will indeed have your penalty revoked , but your site will not get back the previous rankings and traffic it once enjoyed as not all of these links will be bad . If you use a service provider for your SEO you should review and confirm the disavow file before submitting it.

Unnatural links to your site-Impact sites

Cause: This notice is given due to a pattern of unnatural backlinks, paid link networks, unnatural, artificial, deceptive, or manipulative links. This is a way of Google telling you that your participation in these types of link network s that pass page rank has been detected.

Symptom: Same as for Unnatural links to your site

Treatment: You may have purchased these links by yourself or perhaps hired an agency or freelancer to build links for you or do SEO. If you have paid for links you should consider removing them immediately.