Will_Spencer - 5:35 pm on Feb 6, 2006 (gmt 0)

If you're still in the index, then sending reinclusion requests probably won't help you, because as far as Google is concerned, you're not being penalized per se, you're just not ranking well.

I believe that was true at one time, when Google only had the ability to deindex sites they didn't like.

I do not believe that is currently true. I believe that reinclusion requests are now the proper mechanism for penalties as well as complete deindexing.

Of course, I could be wrong. If I knew anything, I wouldn't be getting traffic only from visitors who had bookmarked my sites. ;)

Ah yes, here is a quote from Matt Cutts on this very point:

If you’ve been experimenting with SEO, or you employ as SEO company that might be doing things outside Google’s guidelines, and your site has taken a precipitous drop recently, you may have a spam penalty. A reinclusion request asks Google to remove any potential spam penalty.

Not that I have been doing anything outside of Google's Guidelines, but it appears that Google may believe that I have.

So yes, according to Matt, a Reinclusion Request is appropriate for penalties as we as for complete deindexing.