How to Submit Reconsideration Request for Google Panda Recovery [Videos]

A Google reconsideration request by Google Webmaster tools is a last resort to Google Panda recovery, after you have tried everything to make your site clean and better, but have had no luck with site traffic recovery. After you file a Google reconsideration request on Google Webmaster tools, the Google quality team can review your application and tweak the way they index your site to improve search engine rankings if all is well.

Google Reconsideration Request

So how should you file a Webmaster reconsideration request to Google? The entire process of submitting reconsideration requests starts after you login to your Google Webmaster account, have already verified your site in the dashboard, and then you fill the reconsideration form.

Is a multiple sites, you choose which side you want them to review

After that they basically wanted to confirm that you have read the Google Webmaster quality guidelines, the site does not currently violate Google’s quality guidelines and that you agree to follow Google’s quality guidelines in the future. Then there is a large text box to explain your case.

 

Best practices for reconsideration requests

The Google quality team has created these excellent videos by team members which clearly highlight what they expect from a reconsideration request. Sit back and watch these videos below before your fill the reconsideration form.

Some key takeaway points which you get from these videos is -

1. Identify that your site has been penalised. Here are some simple ways to check why site is performing poorly in search engine results.
2. Identify what the cause of the site penalisation possibly was. Read the Google quality guidelines.
3. Fix the potential issues that you think caused the Google penalty
4. Google engineers are smart and they have smarter tools to find what you have been doing wrong, knowingly or unknowingly. So speak out and fix the issues and come clean.
5. It is important to tell them what the problem possibly was, what it did to fix it, and what assurance do they have that you will not do it again.
6. Note that they are particularly interested in knowing if you have hired a SEO agency to gain better search engine rankings, and what did they do to make it work, for example buy links.
7. They are also particular interested if you bought a new domain name, or transferred the site to your domain name which had a bad past SEO record.

What happens after you file a reconsideration request?

We recently filed our first reconsideration request after site traffic continued to drop after being hit by Google Panda. We basically clarified all Panda issues which we fixed over these months. After you press the submit button, you instantly get a new message in your Google Webmaster tools indicating the date when you submitted your request. They also send you an e-mail which again points out the same.

How long to review your reconsideration application?

Typically a reconsideration request takes a few weeks to be reviewed. They clearly state that they might not respond to individual requests. But they also confirm that if your site was stuck with a Google penalty, and the Google quality team is reassured that you have successfully identified and fixed your site issues, they might just flip the penalty button and your site might get better search engine rankings.