If you are managing a site online and expecting to reach more online users, you do count on search engines. Search engines can be helpful on delivering targeted traffic onto your site, and if you can impress them very well, you will be able to create long lasting relationships with visitors too. Hence, I believe you have been following effective SEO practices or hired a SEO expert to take care of your search engine visibility. But, mistakes can happen with or without your knowledge. Will search engines accept your apology?
As we talk about search engines, still you can't keep Google away from your SEO to-do list. Can you? Google search is one of the most trusted web search engines online, and probably the one sending most traffic on your way.
It's search engine's responsibility to worry about people seeking relevant information online. To produce best possible search results, Google takes different approaches and consistently update their search algorithm. While online searchers benefit from improved search experience, online publishers have to put more effort on adopting with updated search algorithms. Not if you were following good SEO practices though.
Are you familiar with Google's Webmaster Guidelines? You MUST. Especially the quality guidelines. If you have been violating any of stated guidelines, Google reserve the right to demote or remove your pages from Google search results.
In case if Google found your site has been violating webmaster guidelines, or involved with bad practices or posing a threat online, sooner or later, you will find your site performs poorly than it used to be. It's not only your actions, but also external factors can affect on poor search ranking too. For example, low quality backlinks is one of those factors you need to keep monitoring.
Most of the processes behind Google search are automated. If Googlebots found your site contains malware, your pages will automatically demoted or removed from search results. But yet, automated processes may not very effective in every scenario. Therefore, Google may take manual actions to improve the search quality and such actions will directly affect search ranking too.
It's search engine's responsibility to worry about people seeking relevant information online. To produce best possible search results, Google takes different approaches and consistently update their search algorithm. While online searchers benefit from improved search experience, online publishers have to put more effort on adopting with updated search algorithms. Not if you were following good SEO practices though.
Webmaster Guidelines
Are you familiar with Google's Webmaster Guidelines? You MUST. Especially the quality guidelines. If you have been violating any of stated guidelines, Google reserve the right to demote or remove your pages from Google search results.
In case if Google found your site has been violating webmaster guidelines, or involved with bad practices or posing a threat online, sooner or later, you will find your site performs poorly than it used to be. It's not only your actions, but also external factors can affect on poor search ranking too. For example, low quality backlinks is one of those factors you need to keep monitoring.
Most of the processes behind Google search are automated. If Googlebots found your site contains malware, your pages will automatically demoted or removed from search results. But yet, automated processes may not very effective in every scenario. Therefore, Google may take manual actions to improve the search quality and such actions will directly affect search ranking too.
If you were experiencing negative impact on your site in Google search, and Google has taken manual actions for your site, that's where the reconsideration request come in handy.
Reconsideration Requests
The name itself implies the meaning! Reconsideration request is a request sending out to Google to review your site against the issues that has been identified, and to revoke any manual actions taken for your site. As a prerequisite, you need to make sure that the identified issues are already resolved. But, how come you know if your rankings were affected by manual actions?
Earlier, webmasters had no idea if Google has taken manual actions on their site or not. They had to send a reconsideration request in first place to find out if manual actions was the cause. Usually it took around 2 - 3 days too. If no manual actions were taken, the reply states,
Now you don't need to wait for a confirmation email at all. It's more transparent and you can simply know about any manual actions via Google Webmaster Tools.
"We reviewed your site and found no manual actions by the webspam team that might affect your site's ranking in Google. There's no need to file a reconsideration request for your site, because any ranking issues you may be experiencing are not related to a manual action taken by the webspam team."
Now you don't need to wait for a confirmation email at all. It's more transparent and you can simply know about any manual actions via Google Webmaster Tools.
If your site was affected by Google's manual actions, you need to review your site against webmaster guidelines and resolve the issues addressed by manual actions. Then, you can send a reconsideration request asking Google to revoke the manual actions.
However, your new rankings may not be the same as earlier as there are different signals being affected on how pages rank on Google search.
Let's take a look at how to send a reconsideration request.
Before You Go:
* Make sure you have already added and verified your blog or website in Google Webmaster Tools. Unless you won't be able to request a reconsideration. If you are not familiar with adding your site, read How to Add Your Website to Google Webmaster Tools.
Steps:
1. Go to Google's Request Reconsideration page.
2. Now select relevant blog or website from the drop down menu.
2. Now select relevant blog or website from the drop down menu.
3. Click Check Manual Actions button.
4. Now you will be directed to the Manual Actions page within Google Webmaster Tools. It will reflect any manual webspam actions taken by Google.
5. If you couldn't find any manual actions, you don't need to file a reconsideration request. You can't either. Else, you can find corresponding reasons along with affected URLs.
6. Now take the addressed problems into account and fix them. You will also find helpful links listed there on how to resolve each issue too.
7. As you fix each issue, you can click Request a Review button corresponding to each match to ask Google to reconsider your site and pages.
Enjoy :-)
5. If you couldn't find any manual actions, you don't need to file a reconsideration request. You can't either. Else, you can find corresponding reasons along with affected URLs.
6. Now take the addressed problems into account and fix them. You will also find helpful links listed there on how to resolve each issue too.
7. As you fix each issue, you can click Request a Review button corresponding to each match to ask Google to reconsider your site and pages.
Enjoy :-)