How do I Submit a Reconsideration Request?

What follows is our step-by-step guide on the proper process by which to upload a reconsideration request to your Google Webmaster Tools account. It may seem like a daunting task at first, however, this is one of the easiest steps in the manual penalization process. Please note, if you do not have a manual action against your site (which can be checked in the Manual Actions viewer in a GWT account), you will not be able to submit a reconsideration request.

Step 1:

  •         Log into your Google Webmaster Tools account.
  •         Go to your site’s dashboard page (see below).

site-dashboard

 

Step 2:

  •         Click the Search Traffic drop-down.
  •         This will show 4 options, click the fourth option, “Manual Actions”.
  •         Clicking the Manual Actions button will take you to the Manual Actions Page (see below).

recon-ss2 (1)

Step 3:

  •         Click the Request a Review button, and this will open the “Request a review” information box.
  •         Copy and Paste the contents of your reconsideration request letter into the information field.
  •         Check the box that says “I acknowledge that my site does not violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines”.
  •         Finally, click the blue “Request a review” button to submit your letter (see below).

recon-ss3 (1)

Make sure that you have formatted the text correctly, as many times, copy/pasting into this form will negate any special formatting done in programs such as Microsoft Word or Open Office.

Please note, the reconsideration request should be answered by Google within a 2-4 week time-frame. If you have submitted multiple reconsideration requests within a short time period, Google may ignore your request until ample time has been devoted to removing links.

Latest blurb from Google regarding the reconsideration request wait time:

“Removing links takes time. Due to the large volume of requests we receive, and to give you a better chance of your next reconsideration request being successful, we won’t review another request from this site for a few weeks from now. We recommend that you take the necessary time to remove unnatural backlinks to your site, and then file another reconsideration request.”

You should hear back from Google within a few weeks of submitting your letter, and with any luck (as well as hard work), you should receive a message that looks like this:

penalty-liftedJUMP TO A CATEGORY

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