Reconsideration request rejected: Search Engine Land’s ultimate guide to Google penalties and messages
There are occasionally variations of the message which go beyond notifying the site owner and offer a little guidance regarding the persistent violation. Those messages, which seem to be most common in the case of unnatural inbound link penalties, are customized and include specific violation examples. Any spam backlink samples that are explicitly mentioned in such a message must inevitably be disavowed. Merely disavowing the links Google highlighted in its notification is insufficient, and a complete backlink audit is in order.
Regardless of the type of penalty applied, repeated reconsideration request attempts are possible. Currently, Google seems to have no cap on the total number of requests that are allowed. However, every new request must reflect an increased effort to align the website with Google Webmaster Guidelines, or there’s little chance of eventual success.

A standard reconsideration request rejected message is most common for sites which have not been sufficiently aligned with Google Webmaster Guidelines. It includes no additional clues.

At times, a custom reconsideration request rejected notification does include some clues. Sites identified as backlink spammers may receive messages with up to five individual unnatural link URLs to aid their anticipated, increased efforts to apply for reconsideration.
This page is part of Search Engine Land’s ultimate guide to Google penalties and messages.
Find answers to more of your questions in other pages of our guide:
- On-page guideline violations & related notifications
- Off-page guideline violations & related notifications
- Reconsideration requests & related notifications