Penguin + No GWT Message + Disavow List

[austtr]

MC commented a while back that if a site had a Penguin algo penalty (ie.. hit by Penguin but no manual penalty messages in GWT) then a disavow list can be submitted by sites plagued by problems with unsolicited IBL's.

What I am uncertain about is because these sites have not copped a manual penalty (just affected by an algo shift), is a reinclusion request necessary? The sites have never been out of the index so why do they need to be reincluded?

The only problem with this logic is that without a reinclusion request, there is nothing to demonstrate the actions taken to fix the site's link problems. Without this action statement I'm not sure the disavow list will be have any effect.

Can anyone shed some light on this scenario?

[bhartzer]

Austtr,

If you don't have a manual action, there is absolutely no reason you need to submit a reconsideration request.

To demonstrate the site's actions taken to fix the site's link problems, you can a hastag before the comment and include a comment in the disavow file.

[austtr]

@bhartzer

That is precisely what I have done... but without a great deal of confidence that a real person actually reads the disavow file and interprets those supporting comments.

[micklearn]

@austtr This article helped clarify a number of things for me about the disavow file. The author is a member here at WebmasterWorld and it includes several quotes/links from employees at Google:

7 Things You May Not Know About Google's Disavow Tool

[searchenginewatch.com...]

[austtr]

@micklearn...

Thanks for the Search Engine Watch link which included the following:

a quote from Mueller in a hangout: "The disavow file is something that is processed completely automatically. If you put a lot of text in those comments in the disavow file, then nobody will be looking at them. Those comments are essentially for you, to help you understand the file a little bit better and those comments are not used by the webspam team"

Which brings us back to the point of the OP. If corrective actions MUST be be spelled out in the reinclusion request, and there isn't one when it's an algo only penalty, will the disavow file actually receive any attention?

For this to work, surely Google has to accept the disavow file at face value.

[McMohan]

austtr, here is a discussion you may find helpful -

[webmasterworld.com...]

[Planet13]

The disavow file as I understand it it automatic, but google needs to re-crawl all the links in the disavow file and then apply the disavow status to it.

Since it may take weeks or MONTHS to crawl certain bad links (on sites that it crawls infrequently), it may be a while for the effects to take place.

I have heard anecdotal evidence that submitting a re-inclusion request MIGHT speed up the disavow process, but since they are two different systems altogether, it hard to see how it would help. So it basically comes down to whether asking for a reinclusion would HURT your site or not.

Also, some people have said that they saw relief from Panda after filing a disavow file and then having a PANDA update (no having to wait for a Penguin update).

Either way, it seems like Penguin recoveries are few and far between and is more complicated than recovering from a manual link penalty.