TRAFFIC
NAME : FILI WIESE WHEN : 18 OCTOBER @ 14:30 WHERE : ROOM 1
Figure 4 . A website can suffer from several manual penalties but you need to submit an individual reconsideration request rationale for each issue
individually . That requires singleminded focus on one problem in the reconsideration request rationale . Four different penalties as highlighted in GSC ( see Figure 4 ) require an equal number of reconsideration requests , individually outlining which steps have been taken in order to ensure future compliance with Google Webmaster Guidelines .
Even with just a single penalty to be solved , it is not uncommon to see rationales that veer from one issue to another , bringing unrelated technical issues , service improvements or user popularity to the table . Instead a reconsideration request rationale needs to concisely outline :
• The steps that have been taken
• The numbers of content or links changed , removed or disavowed
• A pledge to abide to Google Webmaster Guidelines going forward The last point , frequently lost on site owners , may be the linchpin for borderline cases that could go either way . That is , of course , if the commitment to follow Google Guidelines is taken seriously . It is important to remember that any penalty lifted can be reapplied .
Lastly , be realistic regarding the prospects of a recovery once a penalty is lifted . Yes , regaining previously enjoyed visibility or even new highs in rankings is not unheard of . It is , however , not the rule . Chances are that Google has investigated the website because of its suspicious , likely not merited , visibility in search . Which is why many sites plateau after a successful penalty removal or even decline in comparison to pre-penalty rankings .
While there is no way of predicting the trajectory prior to a successful reconsideration , there are tested and proven ways to deal with the situation . Every successful website should be audited to confirm Webmaster Guidelines compliance but more so to analyse and improve technical signals . Getting ahead of competition tends to be easier on a technical level , rather than applying risky black-hat methods that Google will inevitably discover . A technical SEO audit can become a springboard for neverbefore-experienced SERP prominence . And if conducted regularly , it has a crucial additional advantage : it can help prevent a penalty before Google decides to apply one .
FILI WIESE is a renowned technical SEO expert , ex-Google engineer and was a senior technical lead in the Google Search Quality team . At SearchBrothers . com he offers SEO consulting services with SEO audits , SEO workshops and successfully recovers websites from Google penalties . searchbrothers . com
12 iGB Affiliate Issue 71 OCT / NOV 2018