SEO Penalty Recovery for Chester Businesses

Graham McCormack
July 26th, 2025

SEO penalties can devastate your Chester business. Whether you’re a local service provider or an eCommerce store, being hit by a Google penalty means one thing — your visibility drops, traffic dries up, and so does your revenue. But with the right strategy, you can recover and return stronger than before.

How to Know You’ve Been Penalised

First, check your website’s performance. A sudden drop in traffic? Rankings plummeting overnight? These are red flags. But before panicking, log into Google Search Console and head to the Manual Actions section. If Google has applied a manual penalty, you’ll see it listed here with details about what caused it and which pages are affected.

Common Manual Action Types

Unnatural links to your site – dodgy backlinks or link schemes.
Thin or duplicate content – pages offering little value.
Hidden text or keyword stuffing – black hat tactics.
Spammy structured data – misuse of schema markup.
Cloaking or sneaky redirects – showing different content to Google than users.
User-generated spam – comment or forum spam left unchecked.

Even if there’s no manual action listed, you could still be hit by an algorithmic penalty (like a Core Update drop). The signs are similar, but without an alert in Search Console.

Step 1: Identify and Remove Toxic Backlinks

One of the biggest culprits behind SEO penalties is unnatural backlinks. Google’s spam systems are ruthless — poor link building can undo years of progress.

Tools to Identify Bad Links

SEMrush – Toxicity Score based on over 45 markers.
Ahrefs – Backlink profile and anchor text ratio.
SE Ranking – Domain trust and link freshness.
LinkGraph – Analyses Majestic Flow Metrics and compares against competitors.

What to Look For

Links from irrelevant or foreign language sites
Private blog networks (PBNs) or link farms
Exact match money anchors from dodgy domains
Recently created sites with zero authority

Disavow Process

After trying to remove the worst offenders manually, use the Google Disavow Tool (use with care). Format your file as:

domain:example.com
https://example.com/spam-page.html

Upload it in plain text, UTF-8 format. Disavows take time — usually a few weeks to several months — and Google may choose to ignore them. So focus first on removing what you can directly.

Step 2: Fix On-Page and Technical SEO Issues

After links, the next biggest cause of penalties? Poor technical setup or low-value content. Fix this and you’re halfway to recovery.

Common Technical Errors

Missing or duplicate title tags and meta descriptions
Broken internal links and orphaned pages
Empty H1 tags
Non-secure (HTTP) pages
Pages that take more than 3 seconds to load

Run a full site audit using tools like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or Ahrefs Site Audit. These will help you isolate and fix structural issues fast.

Step 3: Improve Content Quality Using E-E-A-T

Experience. Expertise. Authoritativeness. Trustworthiness. Known as E-E-A-T, this framework is what Google uses to evaluate whether your site deserves to rank — especially post-penalty.

How to Apply E-E-A-T in Practice

Identify authors – Add detailed bios with qualifications, social proof, and headshots.
About and Contact pages – Show real business credentials (address, phone, map, team).
Update old posts – Refresh outdated info with new data or insights.
Use real case studies – Include real-life examples that prove your experience.
Link to trusted sources – Outbound links to authority sites help establish trust.

Step 4: Submit a Reconsideration Request (if Manual)

If you were hit with a manual penalty, a reconsideration request is your way back in. But only submit it when you’ve genuinely fixed the problem.

How to Write a Good Request

Be honest and direct — admit where things went wrong.
Include evidence — spreadsheets, screenshots, disavow logs.
Explain what’s changed — both in fixes and in future prevention.
Don’t get emotional — no blaming Google or your old SEO agency.

If rejected, fix the gaps they mention, then apply again. Avoid sending multiple shallow requests — it just delays everything.

Step 5: Rebuild Rankings the Right Way

Once the penalty is lifted, you’re back in the game — but tread carefully. Rebuild your presence with smart, sustainable tactics:

Focus on local SEO – Optimise your Google Business Profile, build citations, get reviews.
Create long-form content – Target search intent, not just keywords.
Build relationships – Earn backlinks through PR, partnerships, and local outreach.
Stay technical – Use schema markup, compress images, and optimise for Core Web Vitals.

Need Help with an SEO Penalty in Chester?

If your Chester website’s taken a hit and you’re unsure how to recover, don’t go it alone. I specialise in forensic SEO and local recovery strategy — whether you’ve been hit by a manual action, algorithm update, or just vanished from the map, I’ll find out why and fix it.

Get in touch today for a no-obligation look at what’s gone wrong. Let’s get your site back where it belongs — ranking, converting, and making money again.

For expert help, consult our SEO strategist in Chester and explore our main Chester SEO services page for a full range of solutions.