Many many webmasters and SEOs use the reconsideration request form that has been around for years. Even more so now that Google responds to them.
But a WebmasterWorld thread asks if all or some or none of them are automated responses.
One SEO said, "They [Google reconsideration requests] all are [automated]. Google isn't listening."
But is that true? Tedster, WebmasterWorld's administrator said something I agree with. He said:
I do think the RR team now has a number of quick reply buttons they can click for standard actions, and it's not impossible that the "no manual spam actions" look-up could be automated. But it is frustrating that algorithmic spam actions might still catch an occasional false positive, and now it feels like you can't get a human look to overrule that - to see if your site might be worth putting on the "exception list".I think there's still a human look somewhere along the stream, and the key is that your request needs to immediately look like it's not "just another one of those."
I am sure the Google webmaster team gets a huge number of these reconsideration requests and I wouldn't blame them if they had "quick reply" mechanisms after a human reviews it and labels it as such. But I would guess that a human does review each and every reconsideration request - maybe they do not personally reply to all.
I am sure not everyone agrees with me and only Google knows for sure.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
