It seems as though it is now a regular occurrence around here: we are able to get a Google manual action (a Google manual penalty) revoked for clients. With this latest client, we got word today that their manual penalty from Google has been removed. This is bittersweet, because the client came to us after having paid another “Penalty Removal Service” to remove the penalty. Turns out that this penalty removal service had filed THREE Google Reconsideration Requests already, and was getting ready to file the 4th reconsideration request.

Globe Runner stepped in, manually reviewed all of the links using our proprietary process, took the time to send and document all of our efforts properly, and then filed the reconsideration request. Within days the penalty was revoked (removed) by Google. It didn’t take us 3 reconsideration requests. It only took us one.

Here’s the email that the client received from Google, declaring that their manual action was revoked:

When you receive a manual action from Google, it’s important to take it seriously. You’re most likely already seeing a significant drop in organic search engine traffic. And you won’t see more traffic from Google until the penalty is removed. Keep in mind that a manual action is not related to any sort of Google Algorithm Update like the Google Penguin update. If your site’s traffic has gone down drastically all at once, then first check to see if the date of the drop in traffic corresponds to a Google Algorithm Update. Check the Moz.com list of official updates.

Then, if you cannot find any date that corresponds with a well-known Google Algorithm Update, you need to look in Google Webmaster Tools to see if the site has a manual action filed against it. Log into Google Webmaster Tools. Select the website, then on the left side, choose Search Traffic, then Manual Actions, as shown below:

If you have a manual action, then it will be shown there. If you don’t, then it will say “No manual webspam actions found.” If your manual action is due to link issues, then it will say that. And there are two separate types of manual actions: Full and Partial. Both need to be addressed.

What To Do Next
In any case, if you suspect that there is a linking issue, or low quality links pointing to your website, you need to identify those links, clean them up, and then upload a disavow file.

If there is a manual action, you need to identify them, take the time to remove those links or try to get them removed, and show proof that you’ve done so. We typically use our proprietary process to clean up the links, detail everything that we’ve done (even show emails to Google), and then disavow the the links we couldn’t get removed. We then file the reconsideration request with links to spreadsheet(s) and all of the documentation that we’ve been collecting during our efforts. Those spreadsheets and documentation is listed specifically in Google Drive, and a link to the documents are given to Google when the reconsideration request is filed.

If you don’t have a manual action, then you will need to clean up the links and upload a disavow file. If your site has been hit by the Google Penguin algorithm, then you’ll need to wait until they refresh that algorithm. There has been recent confirmation of that, and I can tell you that there are lots of sites (even sites whose links I’ve cleaned up) that are still waiting for a Google Penguin refresh.

As for this particular client who I just got their Google manual action removed? As I said earlier, the previous penalty removal firm (who I won’t name here) tried 3 times unsuccessfully to remove the penalty. Here’s what happened:

– Client hired SEO firm. That SEO firm created low quality or inorganic links to the client site.
– Client got penalized.
– Client hired “penalty removal service” which is a company owned by the SEO firm.
– “Penalty removal service” failed to see that their own links were inorganic, and failed to remove them.
– “Penalty removal service” filed 3 separate reconsideration requests, unsuccessfully.
– Client hires Globe Runner. We review the links. We get links removed. We file proper disavow file. We file the reconsideration request.
– Client’s penalty removed.

In this case, sometimes it takes someone who really knows that they are doing in order to get a Google Manual Action revoked. If you have a manual action and your “penalty removal service” has tried to get the penalty removed without any luck, then contact us–we’ll get the penalty removed. Sometimes within days, as with our latest client.