Google Penalty Removals Happen Two Ways: Manually & Algorithmically

Feb 16, 2011 - 9:20 am 13 by

As I summarized at Search Engine Land a minute ago, Google's Matt Cutts answered a question that I don't think was clearly answered by Google before - "When are penalties lifted?"

Here is the video answer from Google's Matt Cutts:

As I summarized at Search Engine Land, there are two types of penalties.

  • Manual Penalty
  • Algorithmic Penalty

If you are impacted by a algorithmic penalty, if you change your site, after they recrawl, most of the time, you should pop back up.

On the manual penalties, the penalties "time out" and "expire." The length of the penalty is based on how severe the penalty.

You can also do a reconsideration request, which would expedite removing a manual penalty. But a reconsideration request will not help you with an algorithmic penalty - you would need to fix your site to fix the issue.

There is a WebmasterWorld discussion around the topic. As Tedster said there:

It still leaves me a little hazy about the difference between an algorithmically applied penalty and an algo change that caused a natural ranking drop - one that's not a penalty. But I guess we're not supposed to perfectly understand everything. I can fill in the blanks pretty well, I think.

I think the biggest example here is a link penalty. Some are manual and some are algorithmic. I also wonder if the warnings you get via Webmaster Tools, if they are for both manual and algorithmic penalties. I suspect both.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 18, 2025

Jul 18, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google June Core Update Done, Local Ranking Update, AI Mode Updates & AI Calling Businesses

Jul 18, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Maps

New Google Business Profile Check Edit Status

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Login Service Pages Are Hard To Rank In Search

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google AI Overviews For Movie Queries

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Rolling Out Smart Bidding Exploration To Some Advertisers

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Hot In Web Design But Not In SEO? Parallax Effects Design