Member Avatar for HelenLF

I did some work for a client some months ago to remove links to her site placed by an SEO company which led to a Google penalty.
Google responded saying that while we had removed a number of links they wanted to see more removed before taking away the penalty. We have since removed some more, but were still working on this when we noticed that the Google penalty has been removed from her webmaster tools account and that in fact the site is beginning to rank slightly better.

Can anyone explain how this has happened when we hadn't submitted another reconsideration request (in fact we can't because the link to this has gone), or a further disavow links submission? Has this happened to anyone else?

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Short expert note on the mystery raised by (and the suggestions from and ): a manual penalty disappearing without a fresh "Request Review" can happen for a few defensible reasons — none of which require inventing causes — and the next steps are to confirm what actually changed and keep solid records.

Possible explanations (brief): (1) the issue was algorithmic (link-quality signals) rather than a manual action — algorithmic recoveries can happen as links drop or an algorithm refresh runs; (2) previously submitted disavow or earlier cleanup may only have taken effect after Google recrawled those linking pages; (3) Google’s webspam team sometimes re-evaluates a case after crawling/link evidence changes and can remove a manual action without a new submission; (4) confusion between property types (domain vs URL-prefix) can make messages appear/vanish in different Search Console properties. Official guidance on reconsideration vs algorithmic effects is here: Backlinks and reconsideration requests. (developers.google.com)

Practical verification steps: confirm the current status in Search Console -> Manual actions (or the older Manual Actions page) and check the Messages inbox for any notice; inspect the Disavow tool to see the last-upload timestamp; compare the timing of link removals (records from outreach) with when Google crawled those external pages. Google’s Disavow doc notes that uploads can take "a few weeks" to be incorporated as pages are recrawled, and John Mueller has clarified that disavow data is applied as Google naturally recrawls rather than instantly. See and John Mueller’s comment. ()

If the manual action truly returned later, keep a clear timeline (screenshots of Search Console messages, export of links removed, outreach logs) — this is exactly the documentation to include in any future Request Review. Algorithmic improvements (Penguin becoming more real‑time) also changed how link signals are applied, so ranking movement can sometimes look like a “mystery” recovery. See Google’s webspam report for background. (developers.google.com)

Bottom line: verify via Search Console (Manual actions, Messages, Disavow history), document everything, and keep monitoring; if the action comes back, submit a fully documented Request Review. For Search Console checks and where to look, see Google’s Search Console start guide. (developers.google.com)

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Member Avatar for John_66

disavow links submission was the best option in this situation
can u explain further on the types of links you had placed

Member Avatar for HelenLF

I hadn't placed any links. An SEO company had done so. The mystery was that the site had ceased to be penalised by Google despite them previously asking for more links to be removed and no further disavow file or reconsideration request being submitted

Member Avatar for Kelly Burby

Well, this isn't happening with me I would say no one can ever explain this rather than the Google itself, what I am considering is they may have found that you have put on the enough effort and so they might have revoke the penatly but still what I doubt is if google has revoke the penatly they must have sent some messages that your penalty has been revoke or ..... ?

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