Google manual spam action: first aid!

'One day you're up, then you turn around
You find your world is tumbling down
It happened to me and it can happen to you.' 

That's what the Surpremes sang way back when. They were singing about love.

Uh-oh! Google Manual Penalty Action!

But these lyrics also apply to getting a Google manual spam action!

How do you know you're in Google's bad books?

You may notice a sudden drop in traffic. Or suddenly your pagerank dropped from 3 to 0. But the surest way of knowing there's a problem, is getting a message from Google in your Google Webmaster Tools account.

And it may sound like this:

This site may not perform as well in Google results because it appears to be in violationg of Google’s Webmaster Guidelinesfollow. Unnatural links from your site Google detected a pattern of unnatural, artificial, deceptive or manipulative outbound links on pages on this site. This may be the result of selling links that pass pagerank of participating in link schemes.

Whether you're guilty of selling links or not, you're in trouble. Because if Google doesn't like you anymore, who does? They won't even know you exist, if Google decides you're not worthy of a mention in their search results.

Google manual spam action? Keep calm!

Most bloggers panic. Big time. Because Google is important. It's hard to be succesful if Google doesn't show you in their search results.

But stay calm! There is hope! Because there is something you can do when you get slapped with a Google manual spam action. As soon as you get one, a button will appear:

And that button means you can request a reconsideration!

How to write a reconsideration request

You have to take your time! Don't just send of a message saying: 'Please, this is all one big mistake. Revoke the manual action!'

You have to really show Google you've made an effort. And what you've done to prove your innocence. And if you were indeed guilty, you have to show what you've done to mend your wicked ways!

1. Go to google.com/drive and create a whole new file. Especially for your reconsideration request. You'll be adding a link to this file in your request for a review. It has to be a Google file. Because the people at Google won't open or read any other kinds of files.
2. Check your blogs for suspicious links. If you've been selling links you probably know where they are! Make them no-follow. Make sure that affiliate links are no-follow!
3. Change all suspicious links into no-follow links. Or remove them altogether.  
4. Copy and paste all the links you've changed into no-follow in you Google file.
5. Now it's time to write your request. Keep it short and to the point. Tell Google what you've done to deserve revoking the google manual action. Be friendly! Don't go pointing fingers and blaming others. It's your blog, so the buck stops with you.

Example of a  reconsideration request:

‘Dear Google Webspam team member,  Thank you for reading this message. On november the 7th I received a message my blog was given a penalty for unnatural links. After the shock wore off I went through the Google Webmaster Guidelines.

And then I took action. I changed all possible unnatural links into nofollow links. I’ve listed everything I’ve done to solve the problem in this Google Doc. Link to your Google.com/drive file.

Thank you again for reading this request. I’ve worked very hard to clean up my link profile. And I’ll make sure to follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines from now on!  Yours sincerely,  

Sosorry

Reconsideration request sent. Now what?

‘We’ve received a request from a site owner to reconsider how we index the following site: http://www.helpgoogleisboosopmij.com/
We’ll review the site. If we find that it’s no longer in violation of our Webmaster Guidelines, we’ll reconsider our indexing of the site. Please allow several weeks for the reconsideration request. We do review all requests, but unfortunately we can’t reply individually to each request.'

Summing up a Google manual spam action

Golden tip: you have to have a Google Webmaster Tools account! You simply must! Because that's where you can find the information that Google has indeed slapped you with a manual spam action! And that's where you can beg Google to reconsider.

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