Google Penalty Solutions
Any conversation regarding Google penalty solutions should begin with something called "search compliance." Basically the standards required by search engines in order for a website to be indexable - the rules are different for each search engine, but there are some basic rules that apply to all. Since most people are presently concerned with performance in Google, it has become standard practice to reference their Webmaster Tools guidelines for a basic primer in the compliance rules.
From a Google penalty solutions perspective, the best way to understand search compliance is to put it into the context of the search results. Good results rely on 2 components:
-1- a search compliant structure, and
-2- appropriately applied optimization
Seo applied to a non-compliant structure will either fail to improve ranks, or much worse, trigger a penalty event. So compliance precedes optimization in the hierarchy of importance.
Most Google penalty solutions come about as a result of correctly evaluating the non-compliances that triggered the penalty, and correcting them. That means either fixing or in some cases removing the problem. For reasons of simplicity, we are assuming that you have taken no direct black hat actions to advance your ranks, and that any rank issues are either the result of errors, omissions, or innocent mistakes. If you have been involved with link schemes or directly buying links, we suggest that you start by looking carefully at the consequences of those activities.
What To Do If Your Site Is Penalized
First, make sure your site is actually penalized and not just failing to rank. This is very important. Many people assume their sites are penalized when the site fails to hold significant search positions after many attempts to rank for a specific keyword. But a penalty is much more serious than simple rank failure. A penalty is PUNISHMENT for failing to abide by the stated rules of the road - the Google webmaster guidelines (search for it if you don't know what that is).
Next, make sure that your site is not generating large numbers of errors via poor implementation. Read the best practices guidelines mentioned above, and open a Google account so you have access to their Webmaster Tools information about your site. From WMT you can see certain metrics that signal whether your site is performing as it should.
Especially note an area labeled 'Diagnostics'. Check the 'Malware' link to see if your site has been hacked and is penalized for distributing malware. If this is the cause of your penalty, you are lucky - get rid of the malware and you site will come back. Also check 'html suggestions' where information concerning your tags is posted. Make sure to fix any duplicate title tags or description meta tags. This area should show no problems when the site is properly configured. Also check to make sure there are not an unusual number of crawl errors - if Google can't index your site, it may be because of broken or malformed links.
Another important area within Webmaster Tools is one labeled 'Site configuration'. In this area, make sure that there are no unusual 'Settings' - for example, check that the 'Geographic target' is not set inappropriately. For most sites looking to attract visitors from around the globe, you should not need to specify any country (doing so can limit the reach of the site). Also check 'Crawler access' to make sure you have not inadvertently blocked bots from being able to index the site by using an inappropriate robots.txt file. If you are submitting sitemaps, make sure that they are accurate and not too large.
Once you have ruled out any of the issues raised by Webmaster Tools, check to make sure your site has no major redundancies with other live sites by running copyscape.com. Copies of your site may exist, especially if it was ranking for any valuable terms. But simple copies should not create a problem for you. However, if enough copies exist, and if there are doubts pertaining to the ownership of the content, your site may have lost 'content authority' and be considered to be one of the copies. In some cases, you may have to contact the owners of sites copying your content and demand that they cease. If you cannot get traction by asking politely, you may have to file a DMCA (digital millennium copyright act) complaint - do a search for it to learn how to proceed.
Use the Google forums to ask for help. While the level of expertise may vary, you might learn something valuable. Also read the previous posts and threads started by other penalized site owners. There's a lot of anecdotal information out there, and when you're penalized you're going to be forced to educate yourself.
File for reconsideration.
We'll have some sample documents up shortly.
If the penalty trigger is one recognized by bots, fixing it will return the site to ranks without a reconsideration request. If Google has taken a "manual action" against your site, you will not only have to remediate the site, but also file for reconsideration.
What happens if the reconsideration fails? There are very few experts you can turn to in this field. One of them is Bob Sakayama - his original posts on the google penalty topic date back to 1999, a year or so after Google first went live. He researched the phenomenon by intentionally penalizing lots of his own sites, then observed both the penalization and recovery process. If you're stuck trying to unwind a persistent suppression, we strongly suggest you contact him - his contact info is at that link. He is also responsible for the high level search performance strategies discussed on his enterprise seo site, re1y.com, which also has a lot of information and background on google penalties from the enterprise perspective (very large and/or multi-site).
Beyond the last resort is a horrible truth. It is possible to nuke a site, especially with links, in such a way as to make the domain no longer viable in the search. These are sites with massive numbers of automated links to the homepage, where the link sources are in foreign countries, and outside the reach of US law.