Google: Sites Are Not Tainted From Old Manual Actions

Gary Illyes from Google said on Twitter a "site being "tainted" after a manual action is a SEO myth." He said once you "you request a reconsideration request and if successful, you're off the hook."

This is not really something new, Google has said this before. Google said once a manual action is revoked there are no leftover affects Google said back in 2017.

Here is Gary's tweet from 2020:

Yeah, just add nofollow/sponsored and ask for a reconsideration.

Site being "tainted" after a manual action is a SEO myth. You request a RR and if successful, you're off the hook.

— Gary "鯨理／경리" Illyes (@methode) February 26, 2020

Here is John's tweet from 2017:

If manual action is lifted, there's no letover effect. However, search changes over time too, so it's probably independent.

— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) March 10, 2017

Although, that doesn't mean your rankings will bounce back. Sometimes there may be algorithms holding you back even after a manual action is removed.

But I guess the specific thing around the site being tainted specific to that manual action, that is an SEO myth says Google.

Forum discussion at Twitter.