Manual penalty by Google

[bboyspyder]

Has anybody ever received a manual penalty by Google? How can you recognize such a penalty? Do you receive message in GWT?

A consultant came up with the idea that I received a manual penalty on Oct the 5th when also the Penguin Update happened. I am not sure about that so that is why I wanted to know how to differentiate a manual penalty from an automatic one that happened because of an algorithm change.

[universal4]

Did his theory of the manual penalty also have a financial method of removal?

"I think you have recieved a manual penalty from Google and although these are usually very hard to determine and conquer, if you provide us a few rather large stacks of unmarked 20 dollar bills I am sure we could perform the proper research and maybe figure out what happened and what the best steps are to overcome them."

Rick
Universal4

[bboyspyder]

Not at least for now. I am just brainstorming what went wrong and how to fix it.

[GFPC]

If it was a manual penalty usually from my experience they will indeed inform you via webmaster central with an alert and tell you what they think is wrong against the guidelines.

If they have not done this I would say highly unlikely its manual. I suppose you could submit a reconsideration request - but that most likely will end in them telling you nothing in the end and you will be still where you are.

Keep in mind you will now have to wait until the next update for anything to change so maybe take a look at the site with 3 sets of eyes..

Is it the site in the siggy?

[bboyspyder]

Yes it is the one from the signature and no I have not received a message in WMT.

[FictionNet]

I had a manual penalty once, approximately 10 years ago and before the existence of GWT, so that's not much help to you

[GFPC]

A few things I noticed on my end.

1. That side banner from StarGames is stalling page - is it from their server? Along with that huge banner on front. IMO when google sees those things right off the bat its not a good sign. It tends to slow down the page speed as well.

2. All your internal links are crossed out. They have a line through them. Along with alt text for each link. From my experience those links maybe to over optimized (my opinion based on my sites) where I got hit.

3. Siggy links are killers

4. Lots and Lots of BOLD text.

That was all i could come up with and again its my own opinion based on being hit huge in the past. When i cleaned up things I did so one at a time and waited a month to 6 weeks to alter something else. This way you can see what the issue was. Sometimes its several issues all together that trip the filter.

I just think its to over optimized for certain things along with the crossed out internal links which I cannot understand what they are for. Then the huge huge banner in your face type of banner with advertisment above fold.

[bboyspyder]

1. What do you mean by stalling page? Yes it is provided by their server and it is actually a SWF. The homepage banner as you say is actually a content slider which is there to lower the bounce rate.

2. I fixed that right now. It was a temporary plugin issue. I will remove the alt of all links, that is maybe over optimization.

3. Signature links from forums? I thought that having links from forums similar to my niche is ok.

[FictionNet]

I just did a Google search for 'online backgammon money' and your forum sub-page is number two in the serps.

[bboyspyder]

I got hit on all other keywords that are much more important. Online Backgammon Money is not even a valuable keyword I just got it because I thought I could build a good brand around it.

[GFPC]

When i load the page it takes several seconds. I think the page speed may be slow due to their server maybe. It just feels slow to me. In terms of signature links I personally feel they hurt now. Maybe not a huge deal none the less for me personally I will not use siggy links on any site I care about.
I just feel they harm sites now. Again these are my opinions and I would not take my ideas as the gospel.

[universal4]

I was gonna mention that earlier, I saw it as #3.

Rick
Universal4

[lots0]

If you have a google webmaster tools account, google will flat out tell you they have applied a manual penalty.

If you ask for a reinstatement review from google they will tell you if you have manual penalty.

But my 2cents, you don't have a manual penalty, you simply have a misunderstanding of current SEO. It seems obvious to me that the latest run of the Panda program didn't like your site. The day Panda was last run you lost ranking. You can look up the dates Panda last ran.

Google says.. don't build links in an attempt to gain ranking.. and you have been.
Even footer links are viewed as an attempt to 'game' google's algo. (notice the footer links of myself and most of the other high ranking sites footer links.. Oh you don't see any... gee I wonder why?)

ANYTHING you do to try to artificially increase your ranking is BAD... SEO methods that worked just one year ago... will kill your site now.
It's a new SEO world and your playing by the old rules... your gonna lose.

All those links you exchanged/purchased/traded... need to be removed... That is the first step, then after you have 'cleaned up' you site, you can ask google for forgiveness for trying to game their algo and promise not to ever do it again and then you might get some traffic from google...

[thebookiesoffers]

If you have a google webmaster tools account, google will flat out tell you they have applied a manual penalty.

If you ask for a reinstatement review from google they will tell you if you have manual penalty.

But my 2cents, you don't have a manual penalty, you simply have a misunderstanding of current SEO. It seems obvious to me that the latest run of the Panda program didn't like your site. The day Panda was last run you lost ranking. You can look up the dates Panda last ran.

Google says.. don't build links in an attempt to gain ranking.. and you have been.
Even footer links are viewed as an attempt to 'game' google's algo. (notice the footer links of myself and most of the other high ranking sites footer links.. Oh you don't see any... gee I wonder why?)

ANYTHING you do to try to artificially increase your ranking is BAD... SEO methods that worked just one year ago... will kill your site now.
It's a new SEO world and your playing by the old rules... your gonna lose.

All those links you exchanged/purchased/traded... need to be removed... That is the first step, then after you have 'cleaned up' you site, you can ask google for forgiveness for trying to game their algo and promise not to ever do it again and then you might get some traffic from google...

do you mean penguin and not panda? panda was 27th Sept, Penguin was 5th oct

[lots0]

Penguin - Panda - I stand corrected.

But come on, if google didn't name them, no one could tell the difference... They both target sites that 'over do' their SEO.

@ bboyspyder, I re-read my last post. I have to say sorry, I did not mean for my post to come off sounding so harsh.
My only excuse is that I get frustrated with these phony SEO's-- Manual Penalty-- Bull ****, to me it is obvious, every link you have been working hard acquiring, is doing the exact opposite of what you want it to do... Get rid of the links, clean up your site to the google guidelines, then ask google to review your site for re-inclusion to their index.
That really is the ONLY way to get back into google's good graces... no matter what any so called SEO says.

[bboyspyder]

The problem is that I can not get rid of all the links as I did not create them and neither do I have the log in credential to remove them from the accounts that created them.

Also have in my mind my site is not deindexed. When I search for site:www.mysite.com I get a full page of results and as SERP 1 is the home page then inner pages and etc.
I don't see the benefit of filling for a review. All links will be devalued as they are already devalued and I will not gain back SERPs. Then we are in Paragraph 22. How to get new organic links when there is no traffic to the site? Build them myself or hire someone to do it. But Google doesn't want that.

In the moment I see the solution by cleaning over optimization on my site, adding new content, continue my strategy to be active on Social Media and build links from there and build other really high quality links. I hope that within a month I can see any positive improvement.

[lots0]

Google does not actually de-index a site anymore for minor infractions, you just don't show up for any searches besides your own domain name.
However, your site is effectively out of the active search index and your site is then put into an inactive supplemental index, that is what I meant.

When your de-listred from the search index(like your site is) it is going to be near impossible to get 'high' quality sites to link to you.

You may or may not be able to remove all those backlinks... But one thing I know for sure.. the folks at google want to see that you made an effort to remove them... I have even seen google request copies of emails sent to websites asking for them to remove links. Just spend some time on the google webmaster forums...you'll see what I mean.

I hope it works out for you. Good Luck.

[onemichael]

Atleast now with their recently introduced tool you can specify to google which links you dont want them to see/credit. That way you dont have to contact each individual webmaster to get a link removed rather you just disavow it.

Google does not actually de-index a site anymore for minor infractions, you just don't show up for any searches besides your own domain name.
However, your site is effectively out of the active search index and your site is then put into an inactive supplemental index, that is what I meant.

When your de-listred from the search index(like your site is) it is going to be near impossible to get 'high' quality sites to link to you.

You may or may not be able to remove all those backlinks... But one thing I know for sure.. the folks at google want to see that you made an effort to remove them... I have even seen google request copies of emails sent to websites asking for them to remove links. Just spend some time on the google webmaster forums...you'll see what I mean.

I hope it works out for you. Good Luck.

[oc+]

Google says.. don't build links in an attempt to gain ranking..

Fair enough but then why do some online casinos still rank when they buy so many links, should 888 no longer be ranking for "online casino"? There is also a mega affiliate who buy tons of links too yet they still rank, is it a case of going after the little sites only?