Google’s John Mueller uses the Google Webmasters Youtube channel to answer questions Digital Marketers might have through his “SEO Snippets”. In this particular video, the question received is about Google penalties and what happens afterwards.
Michael from Switzerland asks “I had a penalty and I fixed it. Will Google hold a grudge?”
Johns begins by explaining that at Google headquarters, penalties are actually called “manual actions” as they are generally manually applied by a team at Google and they don’t always have a negative impact on a site overall. Any SEO Sydney Experts will know how dangerous a manual action can be.
Manual actions are informed by the search console to the site directly and the site owners are given an option to take action to resolve the issue or submit a reconsideration request. If the Google team confirm that the issue has been fixed, they will take away the manual action.
John goes on to say that usually it can take some time to resolve the issue, however Google’s algorithm will not hold the issue against the site in the long term. That being said, it’s common for the site to not return to its same position after the manual action, but only because it might have had an unnatural height prior to the manual action. Google’s algorithm will always strive to show the most natural results.
To conclude, John answers the question by saying that no, Google’s algorithm does not hold grudges, but in saying that, visibility can change over time - an SEO consultant will be able to help with how this influences your business. The video is only a short snippet, however the information is powerful, concise and answers the question precisely.
