Google: Even Quality Algorithms May Wait To Show Webmaster Won't Repeat Offense

Jun 15, 2016 - 7:36 am 12 — by

google traffic light delay

It makes sense that if you do something wrong to a friend or colleague, they may trust you less. For them to forgive you, it might take time. You might have to prove to them over that time that you are not taking advantage of them by forgiving them too quickly.

Well, some algorithms at Google may do the same.

Simon asked the question at the 23:40 mark into yesterday's Google Hangout on Google+ with John Mueller.

Simon asked about time delays and how sites can take some time to recover. He asked how maybe algorithms require to see that the site doesn’t repeat the offense as soon as it recovers. Does Google wait to make sure they don't repeat the offense he asks. I added to that question, why does an algorithm need to wait, we know manual actions might wait a bit but if they are fast, why wait?

John Mueller answered that they do sometimes wait, but added “when it's running all the time sure” you don’t need to wait. He added that sometimes they need to see the data settle down before the algorithm can take notice, so maybe that is the issue.

He said:

Yeah but then that's something that can happen in a little bit faster but sometimes we do you just want to make sure that things have settled down and in a stable state.

I don't know specifically with regards to the Panda sites that you mentioned there. So that's something where if you have examples, links to old forum threads where that's kind of discussed I would love to take a look to see what has been happening there. But in general it's not the case that algorithm would have to like wait a year for for things to settle down. Usually see more of a technical issue that we kind of need to wait until the data has stabilized.

Forum discussion at Google+.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Google Search Volatility

More Details

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 23, 2026

Oct 23, 2026 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Chatter, PHP Exploit, AI SEO Worthwhile, Google Local, Google Ads, ChatGPT Ads & More

Oct 23, 2026 - 8:01 am
Google

Google AI Overview Citation Cards With AI-Generated Summary Snippets

Oct 23, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

JPEG XL Image Format Not Supported By Google Images & Google Discover

Oct 23, 2026 - 7:41 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Tests New Advanced Performance Reports

Oct 23, 2026 - 7:31 am
Google

Google Universal Cart In Search Is Live, Yep

Oct 23, 2026 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google: Panda Has Not Fundamentally Changed But Does Get Ongoing Tweaks