Infographic: How to Recover from a Google Penguin Penalty using Ahrefs

Ahrefs have come up with a new infographic that has detailed steps including screenshots and instructions telling you what you exactly need to do to recover your site from a Google Penguin penalty using nothing but Ahrefs and Google Webmaster Tools.
The infographic is targeted towards both newbies and average webmasters and will hopefully provide some much needed clearance to the confusions regarding Google Penguin recovery in people’s minds.

So, without further ado, check out the infographic below:

(Click infographic to enlarge.)

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Please include attribution to https://blog.ahrefs.com/ with this graphic. <a href='https://blog.ahrefs.com/infographic-recover-google-penguin-penalty-using-ahrefs/'><img src='https://ahrefs.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Infographic-Google-Penguin-Penalty-Recovery.jpg' alt='Google Penguin Penalty Recovery' width='715' border='0' /></a>

Feel free to share the infographic around if you loved it, and leave your valuable opinions in the comments section below. This is our first try at creating an infographic content. If the response is positive, you might as well see new ones coming out soon. Also, don’t forget to post a comment if you have any queries at all about recovering from Google Penguin.

http://www.babymonitor101.com/ Baby Monitor 101

Thanks for nice infographic. How approximately long does it takes Google to disavow the submitted links/domains?
- http://techtage.com/ Rohit Palit
  
  Anywhere from 2 weeks to 2-3 months normally.
  - http://www.monstermmorpg.com/ MonsterMMORPG
    
    actually it really does nothing based on my experience
    - Artem Kuprin
      
      Agreed. No effect for both our websites as well.
    - http://racingtoaredlight.com/ Soused Bergin
      
      Our Disavow file did nothing until the update, went up.
      - http://www.monstermmorpg.com/ MonsterMMORPG
        
        i have no effect after update as well. i cleaned on domain level
      - http://racingtoaredlight.com/ Soused Bergin
        
        Exact same. Google is rewarded sites for snitching.
      - http://www.monstermmorpg.com/ MonsterMMORPG
        
        well i scanned via multiple sources so i am pretty sure i did
      - http://racingtoaredlight.com/ Soused Bergin
        
        Something else is the problem or you just don’t have enough to overcome the competition.
      - http://www.monstermmorpg.com/ MonsterMMORPG
        
        actually there is no competition other almost have no links
    - http://techtage.com/ Rohit Palit
      
      Actually, you didn’t include ALL the domains pointing spammy links to your site.
      - http://www.monstermmorpg.com/ MonsterMMORPG
        
        nope i did. this tool does nothing.
      - http://techtage.com/ Rohit Palit
        
        That’s quite a brave statement to make, mate. I’ve had numerous successes using the disavow tool.
http://estan.pl/ Sebastian Heymann

Step 7 should be: “If you can delete links on this domain: do this!”
josh bachynski (SEO)

sorry this is crap. If the disavow file worked this would quite possibly harm a site. However there is no proof to disavow file works at all so unless you also delete a lot of those spam links you won’t get out. And this assumes they will rerun the penguin algo anytime soon
- http://techtage.com/ Rohit Palit
  
  Your comment doesn’t help either. It ‘assumes’ disavow files don’t work.
  - josh bachynski (SEO)
    
    only b/c i have tested it 12+ times and it is link deletion that works, not the disavow – a pure disavow does not appear to do anything – SEOS need to stop telling people it does
    - http://techtage.com/ Rohit Palit
      
      Well, I’ve handled disavows for over 25+ sites so far and 18 of them were successful so far (the remaining, I expect, will be successful as well as Penguin 3.0 data is yet to fully roll-out worldwide). So, by that same logic, I can say a pure disavow works just as well.
      
      Either way, in case of negative SEO, most links are dropped naturally days and weeks after they’re blasted due to moderation etc. so that counts as link removal.
      - http://homeremedieslog.com Sammy
        
        My site improved a lot from the recent penguin and I submitted a massive disavow file to google. I did not get rid of any links by hand as all of my bad links were unreachable, hOWEVER I admit, A LOT of the bad links disappeared by themselves anyway, mainly because google killed the sites they were on anyway.
      - http://techtage.com/ Rohit Palit
        
        Well, the reason why they disappeared could be that the maintainers of those sites identified them as spam and removed them over time.
      - Groot
        
        That doesn’t prove it worked. You have too many uncontrolled variables such as link loss and changing anchor text percentages. The only way to demonstrate it has an effect is to isolate and control all links pointing to your site. This is the basis for empirical testing.
- http://www.ducktoes.com/webdesign/seo.php Cathie Dunklee-Donnell
  
  Disavow and the above method does work very well. You have to wait for Penguin to again which it just did on October 17. I’ve done it or something very similar and it has worked for several sites. Of course link deletion also works but sometimes sites ignore you or won’t delete your link or make it impossible to contact them. Then your only option is disavow.
  - josh bachynski (SEO)
    
    Prove it. Show me a site that has just done a pure disavow and lost no links and I will agree. Until then I say the disavow is a myth made to placate webmasters and ONLY deleting will work
    - http://www.ducktoes.com/webdesign/seo.php Cathie Dunklee-Donnell
      
      I have some sites I can show you. I don’t want to put them on here.
      - josh bachynski (SEO)
        
        sure, email me joshbachynski [at ] gmail . com
- Groot
  
  Of course it’s crap. The only way for recover from Penguin is to have a natural looking link profile and that means correcting whatever the problem is.
Muhammad Junaid

I don’t think so that disavow file works, but I will prefer to remove low quality Back Links manually.
Groot

This post is pure garbage and nonsense. Disavow tool? LMAO. You guys don’t know shit about SEO. Quit wasting peoples time.
Vishy

I didnt know Ahrefs accepted “filler” guest posts. This is hardly an infographic in the true sense. Plus its misleading IMO. What about getting on with the link deletion phase?

To me this post is basically promoting Ahrefs and the guest posters domain in the tag cloud
http://www.robertbroley.co.uk Robert Broley

Very nice clear example of how to fix your website. I have certainly used the steps above to try and fix my site which has a few bad links.
Aash EMarket

Shouldn’t the STEP 7 Should be to Remove low quality Back Links manually.
http://www.ducktoes.com/webdesign/seo.php Cathie Dunklee-Donnell

I’ve done disavows on several sites and they worked great. One site ranks number one for one keyword and number two on the first page after a disavow. They were several pages back before I did the disavow. Several others are on the first page. I don’t understand why you don’t think it doesn’t work. Link deletion helps too but some site owners won’t delete the links then your only choice is to disavow.

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