Google Reconsideration Request - Dotting the I’s

Google is constantly fighting spam and devaluating certain links. At present it appears to be “pay per post” type links (where you pay to have your site reviewed) - it’s the site you have the review on that gets a penalty.

But supposed you are that site and you decide to clean it up? Usually that means adding “no follow” to outbound links, removing links, removing the service altogether and then submitting a reconsideration request to google (it used to be reinclusion request)

These go off to Matt Cutt’s anti spam team to have a look. Normally if all is well and clear you’ll get your PR back within a week or so, but sometimes nothing will happen. And that’s what happened to Donna over at seo-scoop.com - see http://www.seo-scoop.com/2008/01/24/matt-cutts-why-am-i-still-being-punished/ - as it turns out Matt Cutt’s actually participated in this discussion (I guess he has Google alerts on so he can keep track) but here Donna still had paid links on her site.

Now she has cleaned everything up her site has the magic PR back - the post is worth a read as there are gems to be had if you are suffering PR loss or SERPS loss. Just remember to really clean your site before tapping away at a reconsideration request.