Bad News from GWT

[TravG]

Well I finally got that email that noone wants to get - unnatural links found on my one website. The funny thing is it was a new website that I really wasnt very agreesive with getting links for. The good news, because the site was new it didnt link to any of my other sites.

More importantly here is a question: because I have all my sites under the same Google Webmaster Tools account, I wonder if the other sites will be penalized (even just a little) because they are associated with this site that was dinged. I hope not but something tells me Google is probably smart enough to know they are all owned by me and may penalize all of them at least a little.

Has anyone ever experienced their whole portfolio of sites getting less traffic because one of their sites was penalized for unnatural links?

This all raises another question. Say you are getting a link or blog post from a website. Is there a way to check with Google if that website that you are getting a link from has ever been penalized? If a site has been penalized for selling liinks, and then you get a link from that site that has to raise a red flag......

[Scampi]

I have all my sites under the same Google Webmaster Tools account, I wonder if the other sites will be penalized

I doubt it very much, it would be very unethical. I suppose you could transfer them to a different Webmaster Tools account to be totally sure.

[cunamis]

Google doesn't penalize your other sites only if it is on the same WMT account. That would be really ridiculous.

Usually webmaster companies, which are making websites have all their client websites submited from their one account. And it would be really ridiculous if all of them would be penalized only because of that.
Websites on the same WMT tool account doesn't mean that the same people are working on them.

[RacingJim]

I have thought that before about the potential for them to penalise the other sites in the account. I have 2 WMT accounts and have my sites split evenly between the 2 and have some sites not in WMT to try and have a spread in case they did do it.

Interesting you said it's a fairly new site, I'd be interested to know what type of link profile it had, what types of links e.g. blog posts, sidebar ads etc etc, good to try and share knowledge as I'm just link building for a new domain, going really well but really scared I'm gona get flagged like you with one wrong move.

[Top Online Casinos]

I suggest you refrain from getting links where you are getting them from.. For any and all of your sites... Although they will not penalize your other sites more than likely, they might just have a little peek at the other sites in your account. IF they find links that are against their TOS etc, you will see them drop. If I was you, and I used to be you since I also got one of those dreaded messages from G before, FOCUS on getting rid of all the links that are pointing to your site(s) (links you know that are bad, or recently put) - ASAP. Do it thorough. Or risk losing a lot.

Once you're completely done with the process, then and only then ask them for a reconsideration. If you're lucky, you will get reinstated within a few months... However, do not expect the site to ever rank as high as it did before (if it did rank) - In my opinion / experience it is stained for life. I can't say that the domain that was affected in my case ever (fully) recovered... Very sad for me personally, it used to be a great site.

That's why it is important to make sure you remove any links you think may have caused this email from Google. Not just to the site that just has been caught, but to all of your sites.. Better safe than sorry.

[wettFORM.AT]

I got a penatly on one of my sites some years ago but this was not because of link we simple made a lot of major content mistakes so this was an algo penalty I guess but no other site was affected by this penalty. I am sure that G can see that your have more sites but it would not make sense to give penalties to all other sites only because one shows some unnatural links.