Reconsideration request reply

[Michael Martinez]

You never know until you out the spammer. I'm not making any promises or predictions. It's an option for you to consider.

[Catfish]

You could file for reconsideration and tell Google everything about the link wheel guy who disappeared. I'm sure some people would object to my suggesting you throw someone under the bus but it sounds like he left you high and dry -- I don't think you owe him any favors based on what you have just shared.

Under the circumstances, I have no problem doing that. But I have my doubts that Google would actually even read such an emai, much less act upon it. Can't hurt trying though.

[casdir]

I've got a website that has been penalized for almost a year now. I decided to give up on it and start some new sites instead. I know exactly how you must be feeling, and I hope your website comes back soon. Your website does not seem to be sandboxed, but its definitely penalized. I think the Google reconsideration request is only for websites that are banned, not penalized. The only thing you can do to try and bring it back is to build quality links and more content. Based on experience, I wouldn't redirect this penalized site to a new domain. When you do a 301 redirect, everything gets transferred over (including the penalty and low TrustRank).

[Michael Martinez]

I suppose they might give a little more credence to someone like me reporting a spam network than the average Webmaster, but I am very, very confident they get far more useful information about spam from the volume of reports they receive than from any one well-known SEO (and those of us who have turned the spotlight on spam networks have done so for very selfish reasons -- Google knows that, and I have been quite up front with them about my reasons).

I don't believe in trying to outrank people by complaining about them to Google. I do believe that we all have to share Google as a resource and if I feel someone is trying to be malicious then it's in my best interests to help Google clean up the mess, as much as I can, without allowing that fervor to take over my life.

They have paid, full-time professional anti-spam teams who could teach me a thing or two (or a dozen) about spam. I do what I feel is mutually beneficial for the most people (including me). The rest of the time I leave the Googlers to do their jobs. While they don't catch all spam immediately, I think they do a pretty good job considering what they are up against.

[Michael Martinez]

I think the Google reconsideration request is only for websites that are banned, not penalized.

You are quite mistaken. The reconsideration request is for any Websites where the Webmasters feel there may be a problem. It is also used to inform Google of changes in ownership (which can free sites from penalties for past bad behavior).

One should never be dishonest in a reconsideration request. If you're going to do it, do it right.

[MJ]

For you guys who think a single link wheel nuked your sites - dilution is the solution....just work on building better links.

[Catfish]

For you guys who think a single link wheel nuked your sites - dilution is the solution....just work on building better links.

That is what I am trying right now, mostly. Speaking of which, MJ, what about those links I contacted you about? (Just kiddin')

Another thing I did is sign up with SEOMOZ for the 30 day trial and have this site (and some others) crawled by their robot. That revealed a few potential issues that I think could have also caused the problem. Since it is free of charge, I think that if you are unsure where the problem lies, this could at least give you an idea.

On the other hand, the analysis has shown a few points where I cannot believe it could hurt my site because it doesn't make any sense to me. For example, they have a warning that I have too many links on one page (and they are referring to the main menu of my site, basically a menu where almost all articles the site has are linked. Maybe I am stupid, but do I really need to build scores of menu levels when I build a site with, lets say, 500 articles?

[Michael Martinez]

I would not want to put 500 navigational links on a page.

[Catfish]

I would not want to put 500 navigational links on a page.

Hmmm, maybe I should actually start restructuring the site with multiple menu levels?