Google has become more transparent over the years but one thing that still plagues some webmasters is the reconsideration request process. A reconsideration request is a method of telling Google that you tried to fix any of the issues potentially preventing your site from ranking well in Google. You normally have to submit this request when you violate Google's webmaster guidelines and get caught.
Google will confirm receipt of a reconsideration request but often won't do anything after that. So you will know if the form was submitted, but you really do not know if the site was reviewed, approved or rejected afterwards.
So what do you do?
Googler JohnMu said in a Google Webmaster Help thread that if your site is still not ranking as it should a few days after the request was made, then you probably were rejected. Let me quote John:
In general, reconsideration requests are processed within a few days, and if you do not see changes, then it's possible that you have not remedied the issues (or, in some cases, it's possible that the site does not have anything specific that can be affected with a reconsideration request).
So if nothing changes after a few days, then either your site did not violate Google's webmaster guidelines in the first place or it still does violate the guidelines.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
