Site ViolationsHow to Recover from an Unnatural Link Penalty

Unnatural Outbound Links

Google has detected a pattern of artificial or unnatural links on this site. Selling links or participating in link schemes in order to manipulate PageRank is a violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines.As a result of unnatural links from your site, Google has applied a manual spam action to INSERT WEBSITE. There may be other actions on your site or parts of your site.

Recommended action● Identify paid or otherwise inorganic links by using rel="nofollow" or redirecting to an intermediate page that is blocked by

robots.txt.

● Remove any problematic links from your site.

● When you're satisfied that your site follows Google's Webmaster Guidelines, submit a reconsideration request.

● For an updated list of manual actions currently applied to your site, visit the Manual Actions page. If no manual actions are

listed, there is no longer a need to file a reconsideration request.

If we determine your site is no longer in violation of our guidelines, we'll revoke the manual action.If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please visit the Webmaster Help Forum.

History of Guest BloggingThrough the Eyes of Google...

Matt Cutts - 10/9/2012

● What is Google’s View on Guest Blogging for Links? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMxC3wQZOyc

● “..Sometimes it get’s taken to extremes.”● “..Low quality article banks.”● “..Be mindful that it absolutely can be taken to

extremes.”● “When you’re just doing it as a way to sort of turn the

crank to get a massive number of links that’s something where we’re less likely to want to count those links.”

Matt Cutts - 11/12/2012

● Does Google Take Action on Spammy Guest Blogging Activities? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpbCKWu0I0A

● “If you are doing so many guest blogs that you are doing article spinning, and likewise if you’re allowing so many guest bloggers that they allow things like spun blogs, where people aren’t really writing real content of their own, then that is a pretty bad indicator of quality. And if your website links to sites that we consider low quality or spammy, that can affect your site’s reputation.”

What is Spinning?

Matt Cutts - 10/16/2013

● How Can I Guest Blog without it Appearing as if I Paid for Links? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGieiNe6RL4

● “...spraying and praying, sending out invitations. I’m going to guest blog on all these different things. And sometimes they're spinning their guest blogs. They’re not even writing unique content for each blog. And I don’t think that that’s the best way to build links to your site.”

Matt Cutts - 12/10/2013

● What Should I be Aware of if I’m Considering Guest Blogging? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qozPhALuQQw

● “...I wouldn’t recommend that you make it your only way of gathering links. I wouldn’t recommend that you send out thousands of blast emails offering to guest blog. I wouldn’t recommend that you guest blog with the same article on two different blogs. I wouldn’t recommend that you take one article and spin it lots of times.”

Matt Cutts - 1/20/2014

● The Decay and Fall of Guest Blogging for SEO (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-blogging/)

● “...if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it’s become a more and more spammy practice, and if you’re doing a lot of guest blogging then you’re hanging out with really bad company.”

MyBlogGuest Member

● Registered: June 5th, 2010● Submitted 56 Guest Articles (2010 - 2012)

● Last Post: August 23rd, 2012● Did Not Renew Paid Membership at end of year.● Stopped Submitting Guest Posts for other Bloggers to

use.● Put writer’s posts on sites through March, 2014.

Cutts vs. Smarty

“MyBlogGuest is NOT going to allow

nofollow links or paid guest blogging

(even though Matt Cutts seems to be

forcing us to for whatever reason).

Instead we will keep promoting the

pure and authentic guest blogging

concept we believe in.”

- Ann Smarty

http://www.seosmarty.com/guest-

blogging-the-fork-and-my-take/

Fixing The ProblemHow to Recover from an Unnatural Link Penalty

First...

Do a Site Search

● site:yourwebsitedomain.com● Zero Result = Bigger Problem● Number of Actual Pages Vs. Number Index in Search● Determine Critical Rankings

● Pages affected might not have ranked well anyway.

Check Traffic

● Rapid Decline● Put money into AdWords while

fixing the problem.● Moderate Decline

● Fix it the problem. Submit Reconsideration Request.

Everything in One Video

● Unnatural Links from Your Site https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mdMXdQ_VyU

● Several Options:i. REMOVE <a rel="nofollow" href="http:

//websitedomain.com/">Anchor Text</a>ii. REDIRECT using your Robots.txt file

(COMPLICATED)iii. REMOVE the complete link. - Matt Cutts

Recommended.

Reconsideration Request

● Letter to Google● Admit to Everything!!● Explain How You Fixed It.● Good Faith - Won’t Happen Again.

What I Did...

● Woke Up - Saw Letter from Google● Wasn’t Aware of MyBlogGuest Penalty● Uninstalled any and all suspicious plugins.

● Sent Reconsideration Request.● Read About MyBlogGuest.

● Removed all Links.● Waited for Request to Fail.

● Sending Request Letter Again● With Linke to This Video

● To Show I understand what I did wrong.

The Future of LinksVideo & Social Media

Youtube/Twitter/Facebook

Danny Dover: YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world and the future of ranking your website is going to be in video content.

Jonathan Goodman: Building up your social media so you can market your videos to an audience is the other critical element.