In your experience how many days/weeks has it taken for Google to review a Manual Penalty..

[SEO Lady]

In your experience how many days/weeks has it taken for Google to review a Manual Penalty reconsideration?

The previous one I did was winter 2019 and that took 3 or 4 days, penalty removed successfully, I've done this a dozen times maybe more in my career and the results come back between 1-2 weeks.

A client approached me the week before Christmas in 2020 asking for help, however I had 2 weeks off work and I declined to quote. I said if you don't get it fixed by January '21 get back to me.

They came back to me in April saying they have done X, Y and Z, here's the timeline from Search Console messages:

Reconsideration Request
Dec 15, 2020 and
Dec 20, 2020
Disavow File Updated - Jan 24, 2021
Reconsideration request rejected the day after on Jan 25, 2021
- So that's 1 day to reject

Disavow File Updated
Apr 28, 2021
Reconsideration request rejected for
May 9, 2021
- This time it's 11 days before being rejected

>>> This is where I came in with a Disavow (following a half-day on SEMrush) I downloaded the previous files which had around 650 URLs, mine was more extensive at over 3,500 URLs (without disclosing the client it's a huge tech news website around 35k pages)
Reconsideration Request May 14, 2021
- No word from Google as of today 5th June '21

Now, given that the previous timescales ranged between 24hours and 11 days, would you feel to leave everything be and bide my time?
The client is asking all the questions, Google is so slow, can't you hurry them up, why is it taking so long, can you do it again etc etc
Well, you know me, I flat out told him to sit on his hands and wait. A bit like Phil Collins "You can't hurry Google" but I thought I'd ask you guys n gals?

What's your personal experience in timescales with a manual penalty reconsideration request?

 

[fisicx]

Depends on the size and scope of the problem. You can disavow all those links but if Google still doesn’t like what it sees the penalty stays. I doubt a real person has even looked at this. The whole process is now looked after by AI.

 

[SEO Lady]

I doubt a real person has even looked at this. The whole process is now looked after by AI.

A manual penalty, unlike an automated penalty, is issued by a human reviewer at Google. The penalty is applied after the reviewer determines the site is not in compliance with Google's guidelines. ... Manual actions are the most serious of all Google penalties and take serious effort to recover from.
9 Feb 2021 Search Engine Journal

 

[fisicx]

Yes, but that will happen after the AI has done its thing. The manual penalty is just confirming what the AI recommended.

After this the AI will revisit to check if the reason for the penalty has gone.

What can’t ever be for sure is why the penalty was applied.

 

[SEO Lady]

Yes, but that will happen after the AI has done its thing. The manual penalty is just confirming what the AI recommended.

After this the AI will revisit to check if the reason for the penalty has gone.

You got a source for this?

 

[fisicx]

You have to read between the lines: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/sear...nalties-explained-by-an-ex-googler-345011/amp

The manual penalty happens after the automated process. It’s not dynamic. Once the penalty has been applied you just have to wait.

 

[SEO Lady]

Once the penalty has been applied you just have to wait.

This is what I'm doing, but my question was asking for people's experience with manual penalty lifting and how many days/weeks it took?

When was the last time you had a client who needed this help from you?

 

[fisicx]

Bloke selling timeshares. It took 6months

 

[UKSBD]

When one of my sites got hit by the -30 penalty it took 3 years then suddenly came back.

No warnings, about penalties, no reconsideration requests, didn't even have search console back in those days though.

Just cleaned it up, mothballed it and waited.

 

[Fagin2021]

Not my field but you've assumed the problem is links. Could it be something else (like cloaking) so your disavow file wouldn't solve the problem?

 

[SEO Lady]

Not my field but you've assumed the problem is links.

- Yes it is. Weirdly, one random garage image has been targeted and has been shared over 2,500 times on other low quality blogs worldwide. It's nothing interesting, it's half an image showing half a garage up and over door. There's other poor backlinks from blogs with low to zero traffic.

Could it be something else (like cloaking) so your disavow file wouldn't solve the problem?

- Not by the client, and looking at the list of URLs they don't redirect/cloak. It doesn't smell of NSEO personally I feel there is simply a lot of scraping going on.

I'll update this thread when we get a new notification.

 

[Fagin2021]

From Google Search Console support...

Most reconsideration reviews can take several days or weeks, although in some cases, such as link-related reconsideration requests, it may take longer than usual to review your request.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

I am assuming (PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong) that the manual penalty was 'Unnatural links'?

If not then tell me, but normally (as in a month ago) I got it sorted within a week.

I don't expect Google to do much in June as they are releasing a 2 part core algorithm update. Initially this was meant to be a single update, but they couldn't get it completed in time so split it into 2, one on the 2nd June, the other 2nd July (ish).


I was approached to fix an unnatural link penalty in early May, 8 days from submission to lifting.

 

[SEO Lady]

I am assuming (PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong) that the manual penalty was 'Unnatural links'?

Yes it's exactly that, my submission was on May 14 but as you say with the core update I may have hit a period of "we will come back to you after the core update" which makes sense.

The client is patient so far, bearing in mind he's already wasted 7 months and 3 SEO's before me

 

[zigojacko]

Google are pretty good at detecting spammy links and they'll rarely penalise a site who is accumulating tons of the obvious scraped/auto-generated garbage - we've got clients that build up thousands of these per day. So the issue is likely manually built links that are being flagged as spam.

And I'd probably bet on this 35k page tech news site being one of those spammy blogs accepting all sorts of garbage guest posts bouncing links between hundreds of other sites.

Almost every clean-up we've ever performed, we've had approved within a week, sometimes even the same day as the reconsideration filed.

 

[SEO Lady]

Google are pretty good at detecting spammy links and they'll rarely penalise a site who is accumulating tons of the obvious scraped/auto-generated garbage - we've got clients that build up thousands of these per day.

This describes the client to a T

So the issue is likely manually built links that are being flagged as spam.

When I met the client last year I was barraging him with questions, why did he have so many links, where was he buying them from, blah blah. To give this guy credit he comes across as an astute business owner and runs several sites. His career has built up over 20 years in the media, when I stalked him online I discovered he'd sold one company a few years back and is a published author.

Believe me, @zigojacko I wouldn't touch a spammy site with yours. I laid down so many boundaries if we were to work together and he agreed with every one.

• Stop all SEO activity from your other contributors
• No Google account changes to be made without running them past me first
• I identified several improvements to core web vitals and we have researched solutions together and his in-house dev team has implemented them all to the resolution of months-old Search Console issues. Even down to the sitemap.

And I'd probably bet on this 35k page tech news site being one of those spammy blogs accepting all sorts of garbage guest posts bouncing links between hundreds of other sites.

Not at all, I was relentless in delving in to his contributing team.

His contributors write unique content, well-researched with sources at every turn with almost skyscraper content on every blog.

I've instructed him to link out less from the articles (to external sites) and replace with internal linking to relevant [domain] pages/articles which he's taken on board himself. I provided a hit list of the most popular URLs and this has been his focus to work top to bottom.

Almost every clean-up we've ever performed, we've had approved within a week, sometimes even the same day as the reconsideration filed.

Hence the reason for this post. @OldWelshGuy made a valid point about there being another core update very recently. Having been on the wrong end of a core update last year I know how hard this can hit, but [client] rankings have remained stable.

I do find it unusual for this to be going on for so long with zero reconsideration messages in Search Console.

I'll update again soon.

 

[SEODEV#338055]

I have experienced one manual action from Google

The manual action was identified during standard checks for a new client

A non ethical SEO agency whom the client previously employed had been engaging in link building from low-grade spam websites

We carefully reviewed Google's Webmaster Quality Guidelines and created a checklist of required actions which took two weeks to complete

Subsequently we completed Google's Manual Actions Report and the manual action was removed three weeks later

 

[SEO Lady]

Well, I have a non-update.

Google still hasn't responded.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Well, I have a non-update.

Google still hasn't responded.

too busy suspending genuine Google my Business listings and removing genuine reviews probably

 

[SEO Lady]

It usually takes 2-4 weeks for the report to be processed, and then you should start to see a difference in your rankings.

Do you have a source article for this?

 

[fisicx]

Do you have a source article for this?

Comes from the land of made up facts. She isn’t from the US and the avatar is a stock image used on hundreds of sites.

 

[ctrlbrk]

It's probably a guy

 

[Peter Morris]

It could be around 30 days for a slight transgression against the Google Webmaster Guidelines, for example, and a longer time for a more serious offence.

 

[SEO Lady]

It's update time!​

7 months later Google finally responded to the Disavow file/reconsideration request and yesterday it was lifted.

Sitemaps were up to date in Search Console, and the client is over the moon.

Without being asked to do so, the client has added a backlink to my website!

"I am very pleased with Nina's services. She advised me everything I need to know to skyrocket my SEO and improve the visibility of my online media company. [client] has now a domain authority of 72. She also played a major role in removing a manual penalty. I highly recommend her services. She is very knowledgeable."

 

[fisicx]

7 months later Google finally responded to the Disavow file/reconsideration request and yesterday it was lifted.

Good to know Google is as fast to restore as they are to ban ?

 

[SEO Lady]

All Google services have been extra, super slow since March 2020. I had 3 Google reviews that year, they all took 3 months to be published. I had clients emailing me saying their reviews were not being published.

In my MCC account the number of times my 'official rep' changed hands is easily around 10 different times in 18 months.

I'm just chuffed it all worked out in the clients favour, he paid me good money to trawl for hours creating a disavow file with over 1,000 domains manually (with help from SEMrush pro)