Google Search Console Manual Penalty - How Long for Disavow Reconsideration?
During my career as a freelance SEO and also as the Digital Marketing Consultant for Funky Pigeon I’ve been hired by multiple clients to complete a Google Disavow, some of whom read online (incorrectly) that if their website was not ranking in Google, it’s because their backlinks are bad.
This is one of the most misunderstood aspects from the client side in the decades of years I’ve had clients contact me. In fact, it’s such a prevalent misconception I wrote an entire article outlining why paying someone for a Disavow File When In Fact You’ve Not Paid For Quality SEO And Assume Your SEO Is Rubbish.
How Long Does A Google Disavow Reconsideration Request Take?
A client contacted me on People Per Hour in a proper panic, he suspected the worst case scenario had happened and he needed a Google Disavow. He had tried DIY SEO but wasted his time.
Google Disavow Upload and Reconsideration Time
Compiling a Disavow spreadsheet and uploading for Google Reconsideration, to lift the Manual Search Console Penalty, recover Google rankings and have the reconsideration approved.
2019 Manual Penalty Removed: in week 2
Google Rankings Recovery: 2 weeks, project duration: 4 weeks
SEO Freelance Consultant Bristol UK, England Scotland Ireland Wales
When I was employed by Funky Pigeon, I asked to go to London for an Advanced SEO training day held by Econsultancy and the director agreed. In the full 8 hour day I only learned one new thing pertaining to sitemaps if I recall correctly. I was effectively paid to be told we don’t offer a higher level of training. That day I had mixed feelings, because I realised a 9-5 job would be boring for one company.
What happens if I’m really great at SEO and the funky pigeon domain hits the top of Google for “Personalised cards”? How can you get higher than Google page 1, position 1 for a lucrative two keyword search phrase?
This is exactly what happened. As I was commuting to and from Bristol every day from Weston-super-Mare, wouldn’t it be great if I could become a self employed SEO freelancer working from home, helping multiple clients and cutting out the daily commute and rail delays? I was lready working on the side getting evening and weekend gigs from people Per Hour, all I needed to do was to attract clients who find me directly in Google, as opposed to 20% commission on a freelancing website?
When WH Smith bought out Funky Pigeon just a couple of months later, I handed in my notice. I was terrified. What next?
I love listening to my clients, the sole traders who used to pay Yell/Hibu £££’s every month, the family business who nominated someone to learn how to build a Shopify website, the company who had built up it’s employees from husband and wife to a team of 25 subcontractors UK Nationwide.
What’s your small business success story? Let’s over the phone, book a 20 minute slot this week or send a message online by using my contact form. If you fancy, you can tweet me like the old woman I am – I’m not on Tik Tok sorry.
Search Console Manual Warning Hacked Website Pages Redirection
OK, so I apologise for the low quality image of Google+ below, this was the brain splitting moment when I spotted that my client’s website was hacked back in 2014.
This was a complex and ongoing case whereby the Joomla! website was migrated to WordPress and all servers scrubbed clean.
Back in those days anything server related was way beyond my remit and I was asked by the client to interview and hire a superior technical SEO. I already knew Robb, he was old back then, he’s probably enjoying retirement by now.
A few weeks later and the worm was back, 6 months down the line a scorched earth technical approach solved the hacking – it was discovered that the worm was infected in Joomla, but during the migration the infected file was passed over too.
SEO Consultant Google+ Meta Page Titles Hacked Case Study 2014
Sleeper File: The hack didn’t trigger for 2 or 3 weeks, then it happened overnight.
The technical wizard who I was working with said it was a sleeper file which was time sensitive, so the day you spot the hacking is AFTER your website has been hacked 3 weeks previously! Super sneaky this one.
Do you have a general Google ranking question, or a complex website situation to resolve? Contact me today by completing the quick form above, or book in a quick telephone chat with me right now. My calendar is waiting for you.
Reasons for a Disavow
Hacked website: In some situations whereby a hacked website has been injected with a file to redirect all pages to an eCommerce, casino, pharacutical or even dating sites, a high percentage of these are not targeting you specifically. If you have a shared website password in another online login credentials this poor security leaves you open to bots doing this – without much help from human hands! Learn to live with 2FA (2 Factor Authorisation) on your website and also email accounts. This is very common and a disavow can weed out any new backlinks which have appeared as a result of this sneaky cyber attack. Change your passwords!
You have had an email from Google informing you that a manual penalty has been applied against your domain.
When you’re logged into Google Search Console there is a red flag warning telling you there has been a manual penalty action.
(Very rare) NSEO (Negative SEO) has been deployed at your domain for a reason. Maybe a competitor, maybe for other nefarious gains. Often you never see any primary evidence in most NSEO cases.
No Disavow Needed
My competitor keeps climbing in Google for our shared keywords so I’m worried they have done something to my website?
Solution: Pay an SEO Freelancer to do positive SEO work, rather than act on a fake negative or a popular misconception.
I have a new website, 6 months old, I’ve built some backlinks from online directories but I’m not ranking for my target search phrase. Then I read online that signing up to directories is bad SEO and I need a disavow?
Solution: Drop the DIY SEO and hire a Digital Marketing individual.
My Google rankings were OK last year, but I noticed my rankings had dropped last month and they haven’t recovered. I’ve been paying an overseas SEO company a few dollar$ a month they made me sign a 12 month contract
Solution: Hire an SEO Consultant in the United Kingdom (as opposed to overseas).
“I’ve just got a feeling in my little toe” .. paraphrasing of course.
SEO Consultants Always Ask for Backlinks
BBNTimes was my first 2022 client success story of creating a ginormous spreadsheet file from a SEMRush Pro toxic backlink project. The manual inspection of thousands of URLs took around 16 hours of my time over 5 days. No sane person can do one task for two straight days, at least without wine or hazlenut icecream.
Following the delighful Google email, I contacted the client and we exchanged messages of joy and happiness, it was such a good feeling. This is a huge per of freelancing, when you solve a complex SEO problem where others have failed (freelancers, in-house, tech contributors) when I get that glowing Google Business Profile review, I always ask the client for a backlink. Most of the time I do get a backlink, on occasions there’s a jolly good reason why not, and that’s fine.
“Don’t ask, don’t get” as my Dad says.
2 Comments. Leave new
Firstly massive thank you to Nina Greaves for optimising my new You Tube channel and helping me to bring it up to date with this fab tutorial post!
I have now put all her recommendations in place and have seen my You Tube traffic increase which is FAB 🙂
Hi Emma thanks for taking the time to update us with the news of your YouTube channel – it’s good to know blog posts like this can help others.
I look forward to contributing to #BizRocks again in December 2014!
All the best
Nina