Have i got a manual action on rankings?
-
Hi guys, so recently Google released the 'manual actions' tab under 'search traffic' in Google webmaster tools.
Recently hit by panda i checked this and got:
"
Unnatural links to your site—impacts links
Google has detected a pattern of unnatural artificial, deceptive, or manipulative links pointing to pages on this site. Some links may be outside of the webmaster’s control, so for this incident we are taking targeted action on the unnatural links instead of on the site’s ranking as a whole."
However was this not the message before saying it was not a complete manual ban, just affecting a few bad links?
I was hit badly in the rankings but still have some good terms and traffic is not that bad still from organic non-brand.
I have fixed many of the bad links (horrible articles submissions that went out of control in 2009) - do i do a reconsideratikn request? i have disavowed the bad links that are left 3 weeks ago? so do i wait to see if disavow works or do a reconsideration request?I was sure this was like the message sent out before which meant it wasn't that bad for your site, just a few links ignored?
Any advice much appreciated, thank you.
-
Many thanks all for your responses and advice.
I am going to give it another 2 weeks, but i believe a reconsideration request is in order.
-
I just saw this in the Google Webmaster Tools help section:
If you see this message on the Manual Actions page, it means that Google has detected a pattern of unnatural, artificial, deceptive, or manipulative links pointing to your site. Buying links or participating in link schemes in order to manipulate PageRank is a violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines.
If you don't control the links pointing to your site, no action is required on your part. From Google's perspective, the links already won't count in ranking. However, if possible, you may wish to remove any artificial links to your site and, if you're able to get the artificial links removed, submit a reconsideration request. If we determine that the links to your site are no longer in violation of our guidelines, we’ll revoke the manual action.
This was on the following page: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2604772?ctx=MAC
-
I haven't seen that specific message from Google before, so I'm just giving my best guess, but I would say it wouldn't hurt to do a reconsideration request. I don't know if it will do any good since it sounds like Google is just devaluing some links, but the worst Google would do is just respond saying there was no need for the request.
Something to keep in mind, though, is that fixing the link situation isn't going to get the rankings back. The whole point of Penguin was that sites had rankings Google didn't think they deserved, so they sought to deal with the spammy links. Those links get devalued and the site no longer get's the authority boost from them. If a manual penalty has been applied, getting that lifted will help, but it will not put the site back where it was in the rankings.
Think of it this way. If you had 100 authority points, but 40 of them were from spammy links. Google comes in and devalues those spammy links and slaps you with a 40 point penalty. So, now your site has lost the 40 points from the spammy links and another 40 points due to the penalty. The site has 20 points. So, you clean up the links and get the penalty lifted. That still only puts the site back to 60 points, not the 100 points from before. The missing 40 points are just gone because those links have been devalued. The only way to get the site fully back to where it was is to just work to build authority naturally through good content and good service.
Kurt Steinbrueck
OurChurch.Com -
I have already removed 119 domains manually and kept records, theres about 40 left i just cant move. I have kept a record of all of this and i like the idea on your site to upload the details of this to google docs to include on the reconsideration request - thank you for advice.
So basically I feel we got hit because a bad seo agency did article submissions on mass for the same anchor text which got ditributed over and over again, giving us a non-brand term with huge amounts of referring links. I have been working hard to sort that and stop replications from awful scraper type sites also.
I just do not know what is for the best here, i have disavowed 3 weeks ago, perhaps i should give it until end of August and if no luck on rankings I will do a reconsideration request explaining all of this and hope they value us once again.
-
Hi sounds like a rough situation,
I remembered watching this longer Matt Cutts video when we had the same sort of problem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=393nmCYFRtA, and i think he mentions a couple of minutes in about using the disavow links tool which apparently can take a couple weeks, but then mentioning that you have current links you would like to disavow in your reconsideration request text
Hope this helps
James
-
Hi I would recommend using a tool called Remove'em by Virante
http://www.virante.org/Virante is a Company that is endorsed by Moz http://www.removeemThat way when Google gets your the submission request you will simply be able to have a very complete record of every webmaster you attempted to contact whether or not they contacted you back and what occurred. This is crucial Google will not let you out of a penalty by removing links in the manner in which you are speaking that cool actually is to remove links from the search engine view is the way Google shows the web sight to people when it's queried. It is not for actually link removal in the manner were speaking about here to relieve for a penalty. I hope I've been of help.Sincerely, Thomas
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Title Tag Capitalization Impact on SERP Rankings and Click Through Rates
My company made a branding decision to use lowercase for all of our title tags. This, of course, means that our titles on SERPs are all lower case. Overwhelmingly, it seems that websites use title case. This makes me wonder if we're shooting ourselves in the foot. Does using lower case titles negatively impact our rankings and/or click through rates? Is there any data out there suggesting that title case has a better click through rate than lower case? Thanks for reading!
Reporting & Analytics | | Solid_Gold0 -
Alexa Rank and Sem Rush Rank
Just wondering if these rankings even matter? One will go up while the other goes down.. and the Alexa ranking doesn't seem to follow any rhyme or reason in relation to the data I see in Google analytics. Anyone else using these tools? Is one a better indicator of a websites health than the other or should we scrap both from our reports?
Reporting & Analytics | | unikey0 -
Moz Rank & Trust | Page vs Sub vs Root
Hey guys, Just need some help deciphering my OSE link metrics for my site theskimonster.com . Page MozRank: 5.51 (highest among my competitors) Page MozTrust: 5.74 (#2 among my competitors) Subdomain MozRank: 4.19 (#4 among my competitors) Subdomain MozTrust: 4.63 (#2 among my competitors) Root Domain MozRank: 3.89 (#5 or last place among competitors) Root Domain MozRank: 4.1 (#5 or last place among competitors) What does this mean? What am I doing right, what do I need to do?
Reporting & Analytics | | Theskimonster1 -
How Do You Determine The Value/Worth of A #1 Ranking?
There are many articles out there, some outdated, and I am confused as to how to determine the value/worth (in terms of estimated revenue and traffic percentage) when you achieve a #1 ranking in google. I am also looking for a way to estimate the value, say, if a lower ranked keyword jumped to a better position--what that increase might be. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Reporting & Analytics | | JCorp0 -
SEOmoz ranking off
In my last SEOmoz rankings update one of my keywords went from 1 to not in the top 50. This keyword is my brand name. It makes no sense that SEOmoz would say that it ranks not in the top 50 when I went to check it out on Google, we're still ranked number 1. I thought that this was very odd that the ranking would be so off. Has anyone else has this issue. uALPO uALPO.png
Reporting & Analytics | | MonsterWeb280 -
Why did I loose all my product page rankings (e-commerce site)
This friday I noticed that I'd lost pretty much all my product pages in the SERP and also their rankings for the product names. These are products I both have introduced to the market (sweden) and also some that I've been the only one selling. I've analyzed a couple of different ranking-faults. Examples: **"super mario väggdekaler" should rank **http://www.roligaprylar.se/Super-Mario-Vaeggdekaler.html as #1 and has done for several years. Instead this search in my internal search engine ranks #10-#15 with no relevance. www.roligaprylar.se/?q=mario%20v%E4g "jedi morgonrock" should rank www.roligaprylar.se/Jedi-Morgonrock.html as #1 or #2 but instead this url ranks as #12 www.roligaprylar.se/product_detail.php?pid=Jedi-Morgonrock "Charlie sheen bobblehead" (in the swedish serp this should be the most simple term to rank on. previously #1) my internal search engine ranks for #8 with this url <cite>www.roligaprylar.se/?q=Charlie%20Sheen%20Bobblehead</cite>J So I've drawn these conclusions and actions Products that don't rank well longer but still ranks with their alternative non-rewritten url has gotten deep links from affilliates (i track affilliate ids and stuff via this link) and have replaced the original url which is rewritten. Action: Canonical urls for these non-rewritten products to the rewritten version. For example on this product page www.roligaprylar.se/product_detail.php?pid=Jedi-Morgonrock I've placed a canonical for this url www.roligaprylar.se/Jedi-morgonrock.html With the products not ranking at all or when searches in my search engine shows up I suspect some kind of dup content punishment where Google thinks the search result is more important than the product page. Action: All search-pages are now noindex,follow I also increased product name density in terms of keywords on the product page. But I'm still owned and losing tons of money during the holidays (buying adwords at obscene amounts instead hehe). So just wanted to hear with you guys. Are my conclusions and actions correct? What have I missed, what more could I do to reverse this? Thanks Dan
Reporting & Analytics | | nuttinalle0 -
Do I need to turn off custom results or empty my cache before using the SEOMOZ Pro Rank checker?
I'm getting unusual swings in SERPS ranks from one day to another (I had several keywords ranked in top ten go to the the third or fourth page in a week). I knwo that there's always variation because of localized and custom search, but this seems to be something more.
Reporting & Analytics | | bbelgard0 -
Is 10 Keyword Targets for Page Rank too many?
My client has selected 10 keywords that they want to rank on the first page of Google for. Is 10 keywords too many to try and rank for? I have heard that you should focus on top 5 keywords instead.
Reporting & Analytics | | dseasterling0