I requested reconsideration, and got my PageRank back!

19 October, 2007 Joost de Valk 41 comments, leave your own!

This blog got penalized with a -1 PR penalty for "selling links". Now I did have some paid links on this blog in the past, when I was newer and less visible to the search world, and less "wise". I'm not against buying or selling links, but doing it on your own blog, when you're an SEO is asking for trouble of course.

So I removed all those, and requested reconsideration through the webmaster console, after e-mailing with Brian White, and as you can see, my toolbar PageRank is now back to a healthy PR6. Now to be honest I don't really care about toolbar PR, and you shouldn't either, because it didn't affect my rankings in any way whatsoever. However: clients do look at it, and getting clients to stop looking at it is pretty damn hard...

So if you got penalized, and think that's unfair or otherwise have reason to believe you don't deserve the penalty (anymore), just request reconsideration!

Liked this post?
Subscribe to the RSS feed or to weekly email updates, right now!

  • LinkedIn
  • Sphinn
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
Tags:
Categories: SEO

30 Responses to “I requested reconsideration, and got my PageRank back!”

  1. By Guido Fri, October 19th, 2007 at 11:46

    I wrote a long comment...

    Then I got the please fill out your name/email screen, clicked back and my comment field was empty. It's not sticky!

    So that's all you're going to get. :p

  2. By rxbbx Fri, October 19th, 2007 at 16:25

    Nice, you deserved not a -1 penalty..others like those directory owners owning dozens of the same directories and sites playing the system should be penalized.

  4. By Richard Sat, October 20th, 2007 at 04:15

    I'm glad you got your PR back! Even if it doesn't mean much its still nice to see.

  5. By andrea Thu, October 25th, 2007 at 19:53

    are you sure you just took away those paid links or the new PR re-calculation is due to something else?

  6. By Ryan Lineker Thu, October 25th, 2007 at 20:55

    Hi,

    I would like to ask for reconsideration but I can't find his email address on his site? Please can you tell me what it is?

    Ryan

  7. By Joost de Valk Thu, October 25th, 2007 at 23:34

    @andrea: yes i'm sure. can't tell you why, but yes.

    @ryan: just do a reconsideration request through google webmaster tools.

  8. By Kerner Fri, October 26th, 2007 at 10:53

    Paid links are in my opinion direct competitors with Google Adsense... Now, if the blogs remove the paid links, some of them will place Adsense, and all money comes to Google...

  9. By Scott Sun, October 28th, 2007 at 21:50

    Can someone please explane how I can request reconsideration through google webmaster tools.

  10. By Joost de Valk Sun, October 28th, 2007 at 22:41

    Scott: there's a link under tools on the right side of your dashboard.

  11. By cris Mon, October 29th, 2007 at 13:07

    @Joost de Valk: thank you for sharing! Until now I didn't know is possible to "discuss" the matter with google.
    @Kerner: what you are saying would definitely make sense. Curiously, is the first time i hear this theory.

  12. By Jim Mon, October 29th, 2007 at 18:08

    On my browser your PR is gone again.

  13. By Martijn van Loon Mon, November 5th, 2007 at 14:14

    What's is the best pagerank a website can get ?

  14. By Joost de Valk Mon, November 5th, 2007 at 14:16

    Martijn, if you don't know that, and your URL is the one it is, you should quite that business right now.

  15. By SEO Websites Mon, November 5th, 2007 at 14:29

    Beste Joost,

    Wat is de beste pagerank die een website kan krijgen ? In cijfer dan.. ?

    Bedankt,

    Groeten Martijn van Loon

  16. By Joost de Valk Mon, November 5th, 2007 at 14:30

    10. Maar noem jezelf geen SEO als je dat niet eens weet.

  17. By Marcel Wed, November 7th, 2007 at 01:06

    Its stays incredible that some people call themself Seo Experts, start a Seo company and dont know anything about pagerank. Its so sad that it start to become funny.

    I still have one question left. I always thought and think that pagerank is something that shows how import other sites think your site is. How is it then possible that you get such a big penalty for payed links. Shouldnt it be more logic just give you a SERP penalty instead of a pagerank penalty?

  18. By SEO Websites Wed, November 7th, 2007 at 09:46

    Joost, you think you're so fucking cool, don't ya?
    Well i think SEO's need to share there wisedom. But anyway, you don't. That's ok. But never ever insolt me like this again, couse i'll swear : we will meet someday, and seeing you little girlyhead on that picture, say's me that you will shit your pants. So don't think you cool, just becouse you've got a blog, we all try to do our SEO work as best as we can, and i will garanty you, that i've only got satisfied customers.

  19. By Uberhype Wed, November 7th, 2007 at 10:27

    Out of interest, what was the timescale from you submitting a reconsideration request and Google taking action on it?

  20. By Joost de Valk Wed, November 7th, 2007 at 10:30

    Uberhype: about 1,5-2 weeks

    SEO Websites: hehe so I need to upgrade my picture? :) Yes I think I'm a good SEO, and no I don't mind sharing at all, that's what this blog is all about.

    You've totally gotten the wrong idea. I do however still think that you should know your stuff before calling yourself an SEO...

  21. By SEO Websites Wed, November 7th, 2007 at 15:54

    Joost, because you're a big SEO-EXPERT and i'm not (according to you), i want to dare you about the word: "pagerank". Who get's the highest results at Google.nl (pagina's in het nederland). Finaldate : 1 Jan 2008. Winner get's: Honor and one pack of Heiniken beer. So you say your one hell of a SEO-EXPERT take the challange !

  22. By Joost de Valk Wed, November 7th, 2007 at 15:59

    hehe, dude, find something better to do with your URL, like learning what PageRank is. Competing in google.nl is boring as hell btw. If you can rank above me for this query before january 2008, i'll buy you beer for a night :)

  23. By Joost de Valk Wed, November 7th, 2007 at 16:23

    Don't insult me, there's no use. Seriously, you're making yourself look stupid by doing it.

  24. By Uberhype Wed, November 7th, 2007 at 16:32

    Hey SEO Websites.

    Before you go making uneducated, rash challenges, you should look at SEO'ing your own website.

    No H1 tag for starters, tut tut tut!

    Nice, centred text throughout a la 1980's, looking pretty bad so far.

    I'm guessing your 'customers' never complained because you don't actually have any?

    Just a guess, going from your complete lack of skills. I mean, you don't even have the basics right.

    Or are you playing the 'negative publicity is good publicity' card?

    Either way, you're making a complete hash of it.

  25. By SEO Websites Wed, November 7th, 2007 at 17:50

    Why don't you try optimizing for:
    "pink hat seo" ? Couse that's what you are.
    The only thing you've got on me are negative things, but if i'am so bad, why don't you challange me.....and by the way, this blog is one big hash and indeed i don't see it as bad publicity because your blog stinks ! who want's to read it anyway... bla bla bla bullshit telling everybody how good you are, but you don't dare to challange me ? Grow up and be a man pussyboy.

  26. By Joost de Valk Wed, November 7th, 2007 at 17:54

    Well, if you don't want to read it, I'm quite fine with that after your comments :) There are loads of people who like reading this blog, so I won't mind if you're not reading anymore :)

  27. By Champi Wed, November 7th, 2007 at 18:09

    He SEO Websites,
    Hou je fatsoen eens.. Verneder je niet verder. Er zijn meer mensen die hier lezen. Zitten niet te wachten op die goedkope discussies.

  28. By Optimax Solutions Thu, November 29th, 2007 at 12:58

    Tjonge, jonge, heeft er eentje een ego-probleem of zo... :)

  29. By gian Wed, January 23rd, 2008 at 17:02

    well guys, can someone tell me what happened to my page rank. It supposed to be 1 but I tonight i discovered that it has an N/A.... Can someone tell me what happened.... please help me

  30. By Ani Wed, June 11th, 2008 at 12:51

    my site laMundial.net got penalized from 6 to 3 PR for selling links, after adding nofollows and requesting reconsideration I got it back but I got another 6 to 4 penalty for an error in googlebot indexing and they have senf my reconsidration requesting to the garbage :(

    here you have the whole story if interested: 10.379 not found pages in few days
    http://groups.google.es/group/Google_Webmaster_Help-Indexing/browse_thread/thread/e7f9f6bc780f953a/164d69efe606d131?hl=es#164d69efe606d131

Comments closed, if you feel you have something to say:
drop me a line.

11 Trackbacks to “I requested reconsideration, and got my PageRank back!”

  3. << mediadonis » Ich kaufe ein G, und einen Link… - Thu, October 25th, 2007 at 14:56
  5. Pagerank omhoog of omlaag | blog.merge.nl - Mon, October 29th, 2007 at 15:16
  8. SEO blog » Pagerank - Wed, November 7th, 2007 at 01:14
  9. FUD: amazingly effective… | Wiep.net - Wed, November 14th, 2007 at 23:26
  10. Persönliches kleines Pagerank Update - Fri, November 30th, 2007 at 16:39