What is a reconsideration request?
A reconsideration request is how you ask Google to look again. When a human reviewer at Google finds a site breaking its spam policies, the site receives a manual action, visible in Search Console, that removes or demotes some or all of its pages in search results. The action stays until the site owner fixes the violation and submits a reconsideration request from inside the report. Another reviewer then checks the site and either revokes the action or declines, with a note.
It applies only to manual actions. A site that lost rankings in an algorithm update has nothing to appeal and nobody to appeal to; the only remedy there is to improve the site and wait for the next crawl and the next update. The request form exists because a person made the original decision, so a person can reverse it.
Why it matters
Why a reconsideration request matters
A manual action can take a brand's site out of Google for as long as the owner leaves it unaddressed. There is no expiry. For a business that depends on search, that is a shutter on the front door, and the reconsideration request is the only way to raise it. Done properly, it works: the majority of first requests that document a real cleanup are granted. Done badly, it fails, and the next request starts from a position of less trust.
It also forces a reckoning. Writing the request means finding out exactly what was done to the site and by whom, which for many brands is the first time anyone has looked.
In practice
How a reconsideration request works in practice
- 01
First, read the manual action. Search Console says what the violation is, whether it affects the whole site or specific pages, and links to the policy. Then fix it completely. For unnatural links, that means auditing the backlink profile, getting as many bad links removed as possible, and disavowing the rest, with a record of every email sent. For thin or spammy content, it means removing or rewriting it. For cloaking or redirects, it means finding the code and taking it out. Partial fixes get declined.
- 02
Then write the request. Be specific and honest: what the violation was, how it happened, including which vendor or which decision caused it, what was done to fix it with evidence such as the removal log and the disavow file, and what will stop it recurring. Submit it from the Manual Actions report and wait; reviews take days to a few weeks. If it is declined, the response usually says why, and the cycle starts again with the remaining issues.
Watch out
What people get wrong about reconsideration requests
Filing before the work is done. Reviewers look at the site, not the apology, and a request that arrives while the bad links or pages are still there is declined and noted. Fix everything first, then write.
The other mistake is blaming the vendor and stopping there. Google does not care who placed the links; it cares whether they are gone. Name the cause if it helps explain the pattern, but the body of the request is the evidence of the cleanup.
