Penalty Recovery Audits That Diagnose Why Your Traffic Disappeared

A sudden traffic drop can mean a manual action from Google's spam team or an algorithmic demotion from a core update. We diagnose which one hit you, identify the root cause, and build a recovery plan with documented evidence for reconsideration requests.

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96.55%

of pages get zero organic traffic -- sites hit by penalties see this number approach 100% as Google suppresses rankings across the domain

Ahrefs, 2023

Penalty Recovery Audit

Diagnostic audit to identify the cause of manual actions or algorithmic penalties, document violations, and develop a recovery strategy including reconsideration request preparation.

What's Included

Everything you get with our Penalty Recovery Audit

Penalty Type Diagnosis

Determination of whether your traffic loss stems from a manual action, algorithmic demotion, or non-penalty cause (seasonal trends, tracking issues, site migration). We correlate your traffic timeline with known Google update dates.

Violation Root Cause Analysis

Systematic identification of every element that triggered the penalty: toxic backlinks, thin/duplicate content, cloaking, doorway pages, keyword stuffing, or structured data manipulation.

Backlink Toxicity Deep Dive

If link-related, we audit your entire backlink profile for PBN links, paid links, link schemes, and over-optimized anchor text. Includes a ready-to-submit disavow file.

Content Quality Assessment

If content-related, we evaluate pages flagged by Google's Helpful Content system: thin content, AI-generated text without added value, scraped content, and pages that fail E-E-A-T signals.

Reconsideration Request Draft

For manual actions, we prepare a documented reconsideration request that details every violation found, every remediation step taken, and evidence that the issues have been fully resolved.

How the Penalty Recovery Audit Works

Traffic Drop Timeline Analysis

We map your traffic loss against confirmed Google algorithm update dates and your Search Console manual action history to determine whether you're dealing with a manual action, algorithmic demotion, or non-penalty cause.

Search Console Manual Action Review

We review any manual action notices in your Search Console account, identify the specific violation type, and map which sections of your site are affected (site-wide vs. partial).

Root Cause Investigation

Based on the penalty type, we conduct a focused investigation -- full backlink toxicity analysis for link penalties, content quality evaluation for helpful content demotions, or technical audit for cloaking/manipulation issues.

Remediation Plan Development

Every violation is documented with its location, severity, and specific fix. For link issues: disavow file + link removal outreach templates. For content issues: rewrite briefs or removal recommendations. For technical issues: exact configuration changes.

Reconsideration Request Preparation

For manual actions, we draft a reconsideration request that demonstrates to Google's review team exactly what violations existed, what was done to fix them, and what systems are now in place to prevent reoccurrence.

Post-Recovery Monitoring Setup

We establish monitoring for backlink toxicity, content quality, and ranking recovery so you can track progress and catch any new violations before they trigger another penalty.

Key Benefits

Accurate Penalty Diagnosis

The wrong diagnosis leads to the wrong recovery. We distinguish between manual actions, algorithmic demotions, and non-penalty traffic drops (like seasonal changes or tracking failures) before recommending any fix.

Complete Violation Documentation

Partial cleanup leads to rejected reconsideration requests. We document every violating element -- every toxic link, every thin page, every guideline violation -- so nothing gets missed during remediation.

Reconsideration Request That Works

Google's spam team reviews thousands of reconsideration requests. Ours include specific evidence of what was wrong, what was fixed, and what safeguards are now in place -- the format that gets manual actions lifted.

Prevention Framework

Recovery isn't just about fixing the current penalty. We establish monitoring and guidelines to prevent reoccurrence -- including link acquisition safeguards, content quality standards, and regular toxicity checks.

Research & Evidence

Backed by industry research and proven results

Toxic Link Patterns

66.31% of pages have zero backlinks, but penalized sites often have the opposite problem -- hundreds of low-quality links from spammy directories, PBNs, or link schemes that trigger manual actions.

Ahrefs (2023)

Broken Link Compounding

42% of websites have broken internal links, and on penalized sites these broken patterns often compound -- creating crawl dead-ends that prevent Google from recrawling cleaned-up pages during recovery.

SEMrush (2023)

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if my traffic drop is a penalty or something else?

Manual actions show up directly in Google Search Console under Security & Manual Actions. Algorithmic demotions don't have a notification -- you diagnose them by correlating your traffic drop date with confirmed Google algorithm update rollouts. Non-penalty causes (seasonal trends, tracking code issues, site migrations, competitor gains) need to be ruled out first. Our audit starts with this diagnostic step before assuming any penalty.

How long does penalty recovery take?

Manual action recovery depends on Google's review queue -- after submitting a reconsideration request, response typically comes within 2-4 weeks. Algorithmic recovery requires waiting for the next rollout of the relevant algorithm (which could be months for core updates). In both cases, remediation work should be completed as fast as possible so recovery begins at the earliest opportunity. We prioritize the remediation steps by impact to accelerate the timeline.

Can we recover from a Google penalty fully?

Yes, in most cases. Manual actions are binary -- once Google's team reviews your reconsideration request and confirms remediation, the action is lifted and rankings can recover. Algorithmic demotions are more gradual and depend on how thoroughly the root cause is addressed. Sites that make superficial changes (disavowing a few links while ignoring thin content) see partial recovery. Sites that comprehensively fix every violation typically recover to pre-penalty levels.

We think a previous SEO agency built bad links for us. Can you help?

This is one of the most common scenarios we handle. Legacy link building from agencies that used link schemes, PBNs, or directory spam can trigger penalties years later when Google's algorithms improve. We audit the full link history, identify which links came from artificial sources, prepare the disavow file, and document everything for the reconsideration request. We also review any link removal outreach the previous agency may have done to ensure it was thorough.

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Diagnose Your Traffic Drop and Start Recovery

Get a clear diagnosis, a complete remediation plan, and a reconsideration request that gives Google what they need to lift the penalty.