Think you may have suffered as a result of a Google penalty? Worried your site might be penalised in future? You’re not alone.

1. Link Audit
and Removal
Everything you need to know about Google link
penalties – and how to recover lost rankings.
Includes:
6-step guide
to auditing
your link
profile.

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2
INTRODUCTION
LINK REPUTATION
MANAGEMENT: THE FACTS
Think you may have suffered as a result of
a Google penalty? Worried your site might
be penalised in future?You’re not alone.
Over the last few years, Google has gotten
tough on low-quality links. In 2012, it created
the Penguin algorithm to penalise sites that
have poor-quality links pointing to them.
And it has consistently made changes to
its Webmaster Guidelines that have made
previously widespread SEO tactics non-
compliant – or worse, harmful.
Countless companies suffered as a result
of Google’s penalties. If you suspect you’ve
been hit with a penalty, you’ll know how
tough the consequences can be.
Lost rankings. Lost traffic. Lost revenue.
The good news is that your site can climb
up the rankings again.You can resuscitate
your revenue and defend your business
from further penalties by carrying out a
comprehensive audit of your link profile – and
by taking steps to become compliant with
Google’s guidelines.
But it’s wise to act fast. If you know your
site has low-quality links pointing to it, you
risk being penalised at any point. And if
you have already suffered a penalty, you
need to do everything you can to bring your
customers back.
IN THIS WHITEPAPER,
YOU’LL LEARN
• The crucial difference between
algorithmic penalties and
manual actions.
• How to tell if you’ve been hit with
a penalty or action.
• The non-compliant linking practices
and manual actions that might be
hurting your site.
• Six steps to audit your link profile.

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DON’T MESS WITH GOOGLE
Many firms have lost valuable rankings online
thanks to Google penalties. However, some
have seen more column inches than others.
You may be surprised to discover the kind of
things Google now considers non-compliant
with its guidelines. Things like placing
adverts in newspapers with links pointing
back to your business, and reaching out to
bloggers for links.
Here are two high-profile companies that
famously fell afoul of the search engine’s
webspam filters for these exact reasons:
COMPANY: INTERFLORA
Description: One of the world’s most
recognised brands, specialising in
flower delivery.
The crime: Interflora paid for links to be
placed and advertorials on newspaper
sites, as well as sending free products to
bloggers in exchange for links.
The consequences: Google slapped
Interflora with a link penalty in 2013,
resulting in an instant search blackout on
numerous crucial keywords. The affected
queries included [flowers], [florist], [flowers
online] and [flower delivery], as well as its
own brand name.
COMPANY: RAP GENIUS
Description: A popular lyrics site that
allows users to annotate specific lyrics with
interesting or explanatory information.
The crime: Rap Genius was quite openly
asking bloggers to link to them in return for
promotional tweets – in essence, they were
paying for links.
The consequences: In December 2013,
Rap Genius received the worst possible
Christmas gift from Google – complete
removal from its search results. The site
has since recovered, but only after swift link
management work had been carried out.

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GOOGLE PENALTIES: THE FACTS
Perhaps the most famous Google penalties
are those dished out by Penguin and
Panda.These are algorithms built to tackle
bad content and link spam respectively.
However, though Penguin and Panda have
had the most coverage in SEO journals,
Google penalties are nothing new. In fact,
Google has provided systems for webmasters
to request penalty removal since 2005.
If you have received an algorithmic penalty
because of bad links, it’s most likely a result
of Penguin. But it’s important to be aware
that there are a wide range of algorithmic
penalties, for example: the ‘Minus 950
penalty’ and the Payday Loan Algorithm.
Some of these penalties are publicly
announced and discussed by Google, and
some are not.
ALGORITHMIC PENALTIES
AND MANUAL ACTIONS
Google dishes out two types of penalties –
algorithmic penalties and manual actions. Make
sure you know which you’ve been affected by,
otherwise you could end up spending hours
working on a project that leads to a dead end.
Penguin and Panda are examples of
algorithmic penalties. These are applied
automatically to sites that violate Google’s
guidelines.You won’t be notified if an
algorithmic penalty is applied to or removed
from your site.
Manual actions are penalties applied
manually by Google’s webspam team. The
only way to remove these penalties is to
apply to Google directly.You will be notified
through Webmaster Tools if a manual penalty
is applied or removed.
UNDERSTANDING LINK PENALTIES

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WHO IS THIS ‘PENGUIN’
GUY ANYWAY?
Penguin is Google’s webspam algorithm
that focusses on low-quality links. It was
introduced in 2012.
If Penguin detects that a site uses link
techniques that are non-compliant with
Google’s guidelines, it will penalise a specific
URL, a set of URLs, or an entire site.
Penalties take the form of ranking decreases,
or even complete removal from Google’s
search results.
HOW TO CHECK IF YOUR SITE HAS
BEEN AFFECTED BY PENGUIN
Remember, Google doesn’t inform sites when
they are affected by algorithmic penalties
such as Penguin.
There are three ways to check if a site has
been hit by an algorithmic penalty like Penguin:
Google Analytics
Use Google Analytics or another analytics
suite to check for a drop in traffic that
correlates to the time of a Penguin update.
Ranking software
Use ranking software such as Moz to check for
a drop in rankings that correlates to the time of
a Penguin update. Be aware, though, that you
must have this software in place before, during
and after the penalty hits.You can’t simply sign
up after the fact and expect to see historic
rankings, as the data won’t be available.
SearchMetrics
SearchMetrics is an SEO software suite
delivered on a subscription basis. One of
its key features is an ‘SEO visibility’ graph
– a very easy way to check if you’ve been
penalised by Penguin. Another big benefit
of this software is that you can view historic
visibility as soon as you sign up.
How do I know when an
update has happened?
Moz’s Google Algorithm Change History is
regularly updated with the latest algorithm
updates and refreshes.You can view it here:
http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
SEO visibility graph in SearchMetrics, showing the effects of a possible Penguin penalty.

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How to check if your site has a manual action
To see if a manual action is in place on a website, you need to have
access to a verified Google Webmaster Tools account.
The Manual Actions section is located under ‘Search Traffic’ in the
Webmaster Tools sidebar.
Google says: “[Penalties] can go pretty
far. […] For total horribleness, the penalty
can stay until the domain expires.”

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MAKING SENSE OF MANUAL ACTIONS
There are two main categories of manual action, ‘site-wide matches’ and ‘partial matches’. A site-wide
match means the manual action impacts the entire site. A partial match means the manual action
impacts a URL, a set of URLs or a section of a website.
In addition, there are ten or more common messages that explain more about the type of manual
action you’ve received. If you’ve used link building techniques that are now in violation of Google’s
Webmaster Guidelines, you are most likely to receive one of the first two manual actions below.
Source: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2604824
Manual action messages
‘Unnatural links to your site’ This is the most serious of the unnatural link actions. If you see this
message, it means Google has “detected a pattern of unnatural
artificial, deceptive or manipulative links pointing to your site,” and
as a result has applied a penalty to your entire site.
This means rankings for all pages on your site will be affected.
‘Unnatural links to your
site – impacts links’
This is the ‘lesser’ of the unnatural links penalties. This message
means Google has detected a pattern of unnatural links, but has
only taken action on a particular set of links, meaning only certain
URLs on your site will be affected.
‘Unnatural links from your site’ This action is similar to the above, but means Google has detected
that your site has been unnaturally linking to other sites. This could
happen if you have accepted payment or other incentives in return
for a link.
‘Hacked site’ This means Google has detected that pages on your site appear to
have been hacked. This could mean your site is labelled as such in
search results, and may not rank as highly.
‘Thin content with little
or no added value’
This is Google’s general warning for poor-quality content. It could
mean Google has discovered auto-generated ‘spun’ content,
duplicate content, or any number of other problems.
‘Pure spam’ Google applies this action to sites that use “aggressive spam
techniques”.You will receive this message if you use ‘black hat’
techniques on page, or as Google describes it: “repeated or
egregious violations of Google’s quality guidelines.”
‘User-generated spam’ This message means Google has detected webspam generated by
users. This could include unnatural links in forum posts, comments
or user profiles.
‘Cloaking and/or
sneaky redirects’
Google uses the term ‘cloaking and sneaky redirects’ to refer to the
practice of sending users to a different URL to the one displayed in
Google search results. This practice is against Google’s Webmaster
Guidelines.
‘Hidden text and/or
keyword stuffing’
Both of these techniques are considered spammy, as they attempt
to influence Google ranking by including an unnatural volume of
keywords on page.
‘Spammy freehosts’ In some cases, Google may take action against all the sites
hosted on a particular hosting service. This only happens when
a “significant fraction of the pages on sites hosted on are service
are spammy”.

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WHAT IS A ‘LINK AUDIT’?
Carrying out a link audit means reviewing
your site’s backlink profile, and making
changes to ensure it is compliant with
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Most commonly, a link audit involves
creating a list of links pointing to your site,
categorising these links as ‘compliant’ or
‘non-compliant’, and making changes to the
non-compliant links to bring them in line with
best practice.
These changes could involve modifying a link
in some way, asking for it to be removed, or
‘disavowing’ the link with Google’s Disavow
Links Tool. For more information on the
disavow process, see page 12.
LINK SCHEMES
Google uses the term ‘link schemes’ to
describe linking methods that violate its
webmaster guidelines. Algorithms like
Penguin are designed to detect links that fall
under the definition of link schemes.
Understanding Google’s definition of ‘link
schemes’ is key to auditing your own
link profile.
AUDITING YOUR LINK PROFILE

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Sid Type Google Webmaster Guidelines Description Is keyword rich anchor
text a factor?
1 Paid Links “Buying or selling links that pass PageRank.
This includes exchanging money for links, or
posts that contain links; exchanging goods or
services for links; or sending someone a ‘free’
product in exchange for them writing about it
and including a link.”
2 Article Marketing “Large-scale article marketing or guest posting
campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links.”
✔
3 Guest Posts “Large-scale article marketing or guest posting
campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links.”
✔
4 Directories “Low-quality directory or bookmark site links.”
5 Bookmarks “Low-quality directory or bookmark site links.”
6 Press Releases “Links with optimized anchor text in articles or
press releases distributed on other sites.”
✔
7 Forum
Comments
“Forum comments with optimized links in the
post or signature.”
✔
8 Link Exchanges “Excessive link exchanges (‘Link to me and I’ll
link to you’) or partner pages exclusively for the
sake of cross-linking.”
9 Automated Links “Using automated programs or services to
create links to your site.”
10 Adverts “Text advertisements that pass PageRank.”
11 Advertorials “Advertorials or native advertising where
payment is received for articles that include
links that pass PageRank.”
12 Widget Spam “Keyword-rich, hidden or low-quality links
embedded in widgets that are distributed
across various sites.”
✔
13 Template Spam “Widely distributed links in the footers or
templates of various sites.”
14 Sitewide “Widely distributed links in the footers or
templates of various sites.”

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LINK SCHEME FAQS
What is ‘keyword rich anchor text’?
You’ll notice some of the link schemes on
the previous page make specific mention
of ‘keyword-rich anchor text’. It’s important
to understand the distinction between a
keyword-rich link, and a standard link.
For context, using keyword-rich anchor
text in links used to be a widespread SEO
technique, before certain keyword-rich links
from certain sources were ‘outlawed’ in
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. By using
a keyword in anchor text – in an article, for
example – and pointing that link to a relevant
URL, it is possible to gain better rankings for
that keyword.
As is often the case, Google does not provide
a detailed explanation of what constitutes
‘keyword rich anchor text’. But it’s generally
agreed that a keyword-rich anchor text link
is a link that features a high-value, revenue-
generating keyword within its anchor text.
In other words, if the ranking boost you get
from a link’s anchor text is likely to help
your business make money, it is considered
‘keyword rich’.
It is also generally agreed that using your
brand name as anchor text, or linking on a
‘naked URL’ (e.g. http://www.example.com/)
does not constitute ‘keyword-rich anchor text’.
This detail is important, and ignoring it
could mean you end up getting rid of links
that would otherwise be acceptable to
Google. For example, Google’s Webmaster
Guidelines never state that article marketing
is inherently bad, and only advises against
“large-scale article marketing […] with
keyword-rich anchor text links”.
What does Google mean by ‘low-quality
sites and ‘low-quality backlinks’?
Google doesn’t explain what it means by
‘low-quality’ sites or backlinks. However, a
good indicator is whether the site or link itself
follows Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

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You can read the full guidelines here:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/
answer/35769
How often does Google update Penguin?
Google ‘updates’ Penguin in two ways
– sometimes it genuinely updates the
algorithm, but most of the time its updates
are actually ‘refreshes’.
When an algorithm update occurs, it means
Google has substantially rewritten the
algorithm to fundamentally change the way it
works. Updates happen infrequently – in 2014,
there was only one confirmed Penguin update.
When an algorithm is ‘refreshed’ it means
Google has ‘re-run’ the algorithm to evaluate
which sites should be penalised, and which
sites that have previously been hit should
have their penalty removed.
Refreshes, historically, have happened more
frequently than genuine updates, but we
don’t know exactly how often they happen,
as Google hasn’t always announced them.
In 2013, Google’s John Mueller said: “We
re-run [Penguin] regularly - it’s not quite
weekly or daily”
When an algorithm is updated, it is also
refreshed. So you can recover from a
Penguin penalty in either instance.
If you want to stop
spam, the most straight
forward way to do it is
to deny people money,
because they care about
the money and that
should be their end goal.
But if you really want to
stop spam, it is a little
bit mean, but what you
want to do, is sort of
break their spirits.”
Matt Cutts

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STEP BY STEP GUIDE
Step one: Identify penalties
Identify whether your site has suffered an
algorithmic penalty or manual action (or
both). See page 4 for details.
Step two: Download links
You will need a list of links to your site that
is as up-to-date and complete as possible.
Links can be downloaded through Google
Webmaster Tools, but we recommend using
specialist SEO software to supplement this
list. Otherwise, you may end up with an
incomplete picture of your link profile, and
risk wasting time auditing links that won’t
make a difference.
Step three: Classify links
Manually classify your links as ‘compliant’ or
’non-compliant’, based on the link schemes
table on page 9.
Step four: Contact webmasters
For every non-compliant link, make every
effort to obtain the webmaster’s details for the
offending site. Reach out to the webmaster
and ask for the link to be removed or
modified.You should always do this before
considering disavowing a link.
Step five: Disavow links
If you don’t hear back from a webmaster, or
receive a negative response, add that link to
a disavow list. At the end of the link auditing
process, you should upload this disavow list
in Google Webmaster Tools.
When a link is disavowed, it means that
Google no longer recognises the link as
passing Pagerank.
Step six: Repeat!
Carry out this process for every link.
Obviously if you have thousands upon
thousands of links, this can be a time-
consuming process!
1
2
3
4
5
6

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WHEN WILL I RECOVER
FROM MY PENALTY?
Algorithmic penalties
If your link auditing, management and
removal processes have been extensive
enough, you should regain rankings in due
course. This will happen automatically, and
requires no further action from you.
Manual actions
If you have a manual action applied to
your site, you will have to apply to Google
directly to have it removed.You do this by
submitting a reconsideration request through
Webmaster Tools.
Google demands extensive documentation,
detailing the links you’ve found and the links
you’ve modified, removed or disavowed. It
also requires assurance that you understand
the severity of your actions, and will not use
similar link building tactics in future.
This can be difficult. Even with extensive
documentation, Google has still been known to
reject applications for manual action removal.
IS THERE AN ALTERNATIVE?
ClickThrough Marketing has helped many
household names and growing brands recover
rankings after Google penalties. Our Link
Reputation Management service has seen
a 100% success rate for reconsideration
requests and manual action removal.
We’ve built our Link Reputation Management
service on decades of SEO experience.
That’s why we’re a trusted SEO partner for
some of the UK’s biggest brands.
NEXT STEPS
Need help removing a
penalty or protecting your
site from future updates?
Call one of our experts now
for an easy, cost-effective
solution – 0800 088 7486.

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ClickThrough is a digital marketing
agency, providing web development,
search engine optimisation, pay
per click management, conversion
optimisation and content marketing
services.
Since 2004, ClickThrough has helped
several companies from big brands to
small start-ups grow Google rankings,
boost conversions, increase return on
digital marketing investment, and stretch
Internet marketing budgets to get value
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We pride ourselves on giving honest
advice based on the latest digital
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values of Results, Innovation, Trust and
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Whether you are thinking of changing
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conversion experts can help.
Find out what we can do to grow your
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