In part I and part II of this series we detected if there is a Google-punishment on a site or keyword and in case there is, which one it is. The next step is correcting the mistake, sadly this is by far more difficult. If the PageRank depreciation is due to a link-sale the course is clear: delete the links or set them to nofollow, file a reinclusion-request, assure Google that the link-sale was a giant mistake that will never happen again and the old PageRank should be back to normal in a few days. The delisting of a site, when Google takes all content out of the index, is also rather easy to remedy. In this case you have to find and correct the mistake and file a honest and plausible reinclusion-request through the Google-webmaster-tools. Google will then take a look at the changed site and decide if they believe that the past “offense” will not be repeated. If they come to a positive conclusion the site will be included in the Google-index again within a few days. Sadly there is (still?) no feedback for reinclusion-requests which means you just have to wait and see.

The difficulty goes up if the penalties were not assigned manually but through an algorithm, meaning the site loses a certain number or ranks. Here we presume that there is too much of a discrepancy between the “normal” signals that Google assesses for its Ranking and those of the site in question. This can, besides a series of OnPage-factors, also be OffPage-problems – the warnings about excessive use of web-catalogs, article-directories and other methods of “backlinking” are there for a reason. I have written a few words about this subject a while ago (part 1, 2 and 3). If you think you have found the problem that triggered the penalty, you correct it and then ... you wait. Google is known to take its time with the new signal-assessments which might mean that there can be a few weeks time between the change in rank and its' (hopeful) amendment.

It is important to continuously keep an eye on your own page if you received a Google-penalty. Key data, which might be able to help the search for the penalties reason(s), should not be collected only after it is too late. Data on the number of indexed pages, backlinks and keyword-positions should be regularly and comparably saved, preferably in short intervals.

Series: Google penalties – part I | Google penalties – part II | Google penalties – part III