Got slapped by google - webmaster tools message

So Google Webmaster Tools took a "manual action" against my site for unnatural links and I lost most of my rankings. I submitted a large list of links to disavow. Anyone know how long it takes for my site to get re-ranked after disavowing a bunch of bad links? Or am I screwed forever

the big G is all knowing and all seeing, i fell victim to your situation about 2 weeks back

usually just disavowing won't do it. they want you to grovel too. they also want you to make (fake) some effort to remove the offending links by contacting webmasters.

The general consensus out there is it'll maybe take 3 recon requests before they take any action, although I have heard of it happening sooner too. (Personally I'm up to my 5th, but I've got a 12 y/o site with well over 100K of links to go through.)

first disavow ~70% of your links in one go

make some sob story about your SEO guy giving into peer pressure and buying stuff from chinese/indian sellers.
tell them you have fired him since the incident but unfortunately you don't have any reports of what links he bought and that you would like to regain your place in google and that you will redeem yourself by offering your audience only the best in terms of quality content & blablabla...

after ~ 1-2 weeks they'll message you back saying that your site still isn't google search compliant and give you a type of link (usually they just send 1 link but if you're lucky they'll show you more)

disavow the rest of your links ... and I mean all of them!

edit your htaccess to 404 or 301 all your links to google or whatever site you want.

send them a message back explaining that you are really eager to get back on their good side and also tell them you htaccessed all your links to 404... they can't see your htaccess but they might manually check if your some links still point to your site.

after about 2 more weeks you're off the hook.

after that never build links to your main domain. point them at 'www' because that's a subdomain of your main. have 'www' 301'ed onto your main domain.

at the next penalty just remove 'www' and tell them you have deleted the 'page' with outstanding issues towards their quality guidelines.

create 'www1' and redo the whole process...



this .gif should be dancing... it will when you click it.

If you use Webmaster tools, you're asking for manual action to be taken on your website. Stay under the radar and don't depend/rely on Google. 2 hard lessons to learn.

Why signing up to GWT in the first place? The tools gives you literally nothing. Getting your website to the full health could take some time. If the damage is heave I'd consider buying a new one.

95% that you won't get your previous rankings because you remove & basically ask google to forget about your links = link power gone.

ikilledkenny said:

95% that you won't get your previous rankings because you remove & basically ask google to forget about your links = link power gone.

Click to expand...

it takes a sh1tload of time until the algo parses those links again... and even then it will see them as 404 and not deindex them because it might be a website malfunction... if those links would just disappear it would be easy for people to dos hosts and get links deindexed...

coreyvf said:

If you use Webmaster tools, you're asking for manual action to be taken on your website. Stay under the radar and don't depend/rely on Google. 2 hard lessons to learn.

Click to expand...

Do you think we should use Google analytic also?

you won't get ranking back (really hard). you need start again, build backlinks etc.
just wait 2 - 4 weeks.

Not sure why people signup for GWT. There must be some catch as google doesn't offer any service for free for no reason.

Don't tell them that you lost ranks , tell them that you lost traffic.
use your wmt gmail address to send emails to some site owners to disavow links.
add a pop on your site "to all lover of xxx.com please remove link to my site from your blog/site".
+ disavow all links you find in wmt.

just act as a nooby site owner.

hardcorebiker said:

Not sure why people signup for GWT. There must be some catch as google doesn't offer any service for free for no reason.

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even if you won't signup , still they will have all info about your site.
#number of visitors
#backlinks
#content
#ranks
#bounce rate
#social presence.

it's just a good thing which help you , if you play cleverly. (this might be helping them , but it doesn't mean that you can't manipulate it)


-=-

prab1996 said:

Don't tell them that you lost ranks , tell them that you lost traffic.
use your wmt gmail address to send emails to some site owners to disavow links.
add a pop on your site "to all lover of xxx.com please remove link to my site from your blog/site".
+ disavow all links you find in wmt.

just act as a nooby site owner.



even if you won't signup , still they will have all info about your site.
#number of visitors
#backlinks
#content
#ranks
#bounce rate
#social presence.

it's just a good thing which help you , if you play cleverly. (this might be helping them , but it doesn't mean that you can't manipulate it)


-=-

Click to expand...

Not true, if you don't sign up for any Google tools (GWT,Analytics etc) then they don't get a complete picture.
If you are doing any serious BH stuff then it is better not to use their tools, it just makes things easier for them.

krswlr said:

Why signing up to GWT in the first place? The tools gives you literally nothing. Getting your website to the full health could take some time. If the damage is heave I'd consider buying a new one.

Click to expand...

It provides search impressions and clicks (well a small percentage) which is good if you have alot of longtails.

W130SN said:

Not true, if you don't sign up for any Google tools (GWT,Analytics etc) then they don't get a complete picture.
If you are doing any serious BH stuff then it is better not to use their tools, it just makes things easier for them.

Click to expand...

yep , i know that . but , op isn't doing serious bh stuff.
a person doing serious bhseo will not open a thread like this.
-=-

prab1996 said:

even if you won't signup , still they will have all info about your site.
#number of visitors
#backlinks
#content
#ranks
#bounce rate
#social presence.

it's just a good thing which help you , if you play cleverly. (this might be helping them , but it doesn't mean that you can't manipulate it)


-=-

Click to expand...

Not really. You can't even imagine how much info is being sent by using GWT. I never used GWT and so my spam sites never tanked unless there was a major update like penguin. It can't be luck since I have tried this on TONS of sites. Try ignoring GWT and you will have a better piece of mind.

^ not sure about how they are going to pull my site info using a meta tag.


Using google analyst is a different story. (but, you can even manipulate it)
(i am not talking about spam/c&b/serious seo , if op might be doing spam seo then he might not have posted this)
i also never use gwt for spam sites because imo it's not worth for short term sites.
-=-

Re-ranked after manual action sounds like fairy tale though some threads here have confirmed about positive ranking changes after consideration requests. It might be a good idea to start your campaign again with a new website.

Tell them you lost traffic after someone neg seo'd you like a competitor. Also do a small PR of how google is ruining it for everyone. Maybe your brand gets popular like that ?

Regards,

^^ i know it sounds ridiculous but why give them access. A token is all they need to get so much info about your site. Forget BH SEO no one should be using GWT ever.

My friend warned me about using GWT, but I am still using it. I guess I should remove it as soon as possible, as a lot of people here made it clear.

xxsaumitraxx said:

My friend warned me about using GWT, but I am still using it. I guess I should remove it as soon as possible, as a lot of people here made it clear.

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If you are already using it on sites then just keep it.
I still use it on some sites, I just won't add any really BH sites in future.