INFOMAZE partnered with an independent travel blog to refine their SEO practices and bring their site in line with current search engine standards. The collaboration focused on technical auditing, backlink analysis, and long-term optimization efforts aimed at improving overall site health and organic performance. This SEO case study highlights a successful Google penalty recovery through a structured and ethical approach.
During the initial discovery phase, several key issues were identified that contributed to the site’s declining search visibility and eventual manual penalty from Google. These challenges were both technical and strategic in nature, affecting how the site was perceived and indexed.
The blog had received a Google Search Console manual actions notice for unnatural inbound links, indicating violations of the search engine’s quality guidelines. This significantly reduced keyword rankings across the board and made SEO penalty recovery a top priority.
A large percentage of inbound links used exact-match anchor text for commercial keywords, which is a red flag in Google’s algorithm. This created an unnatural link profile and triggered further scrutiny.
The site had accumulated backlinks from low-authority domains, private blog networks (PBNs), and irrelevant directories. These sources offered no contextual value and weakened the site’s overall trustworthiness.
Many of the inbound links came from duplicate guest posts across multiple blogs with spun or nearly identical content. This led to a pattern of manipulation that search engines easily detected, increasing the Google SEO penalty risk.
An earlier reconsideration request was submitted with minimal supporting documentation. The request lacked details about cleanup efforts and was quickly rejected, extending the period of lost visibility.
On top of link-related issues, the site was using outdated on-page strategies such as keyword stuffing, overuse of internal linking with repetitive anchor texts, and shallow content pages.
To address the manual penalty and restore the site’s organic presence, INFOMAZE followed a structured, step-by-step SEO penalty recovery roadmap. The approach balanced technical SEO tasks with manual cleanup, focusing on quality and transparency. As an experienced SEO service provider, INFOMAZE focused on long-term trust building.
Using a combination of Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog, INFOMAZE compiled a comprehensive list of all backlinks. Each link was categorized as either safe, questionable, or toxic, with special attention to link context, anchor usage, and domain authority. This was critical groundwork to begin the disavow toxic backlinks process.
Personalized emails were sent to webmasters of low-quality referring domains, requesting link removals. This showed Google a proactive effort to clean up the backlink profile. About 30% of targeted links were successfully removed during this phase of Google penalty recovery.
For domains that didn’t respond or were unreachable, INFOMAZE created a disavow file and submitted it through Google’s Disavow Tool. The file included individual URLs as well as entire domains where necessary, following best practices to disavow toxic backlinks.
The team drafted a detailed reconsideration request to Google, outlining:
In parallel with link cleanup, INFOMAZE performed a content audit. Thin and repetitive articles were either merged or rewritten to improve value. Keyword density was adjusted, headers were refined, and page structures were improved to align with Google’s EEAT principles (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). These efforts were part of comprehensive on-page SEO optimization.
Once the penalty was lifted, the client was provided a long-term roadmap focused on:
The improvements took time, but the payoff was significant. The penalty was lifted, traffic rebounded steadily, and rankings began to return to pre-penalty levels—and beyond. The overall Google penalty recovery was a success.
Google lifted the manual penalty approximately 2 months after INFOMAZE initiated cleanup efforts. The reconsideration request was accepted on the second attempt, confirming that a transparent and thorough SEO penalty recovery process works.
~11,800 monthly visitors
~3,900 visitors
~10,200 visitors and climbing steadily
Key pages that had disappeared from the search results re-entered the top 10 positions, especially for long-tail and mid-competition keywords. This demonstrated how on-page SEO optimization and link cleanup can work hand-in-hand.
Over 240 toxic backlinks were either removed or disavowed. The link profile now reflects a more natural mix of earned, high-authority links. This cleanup, including efforts to disavow toxic backlinks, significantly improved trust signals.
With updated on-page SEO optimization practices, better content, and a clean backlink history, the site earned mentions from real blogs and tourism sites organically. This increased brand authority and referral traffic.
This SEO case study illustrates how recovering from a Google SEO penalty is possible with the right strategy, patience, and transparency. The travel blog had unknowingly adopted risky SEO practices that ultimately led to a loss of search visibility. INFOMAZE’s systematic approach—built around thorough audits, genuine cleanup efforts, and a focus on sustainable SEO—helped the site bounce back stronger than before.
More importantly, it reshaped how the client viewed search engine optimization: not as a quick-win tactic, but as an ongoing commitment to quality, relevance, and trust.
If you’re facing a Google SEO penalty, struggling with toxic backlinks, or need help with on-page SEO optimization, INFOMAZE can help. As a trusted SEO service provider, we specialize in transparent, long-term strategies that improve search visibility and build lasting credibility.
Reach out today to start your own Google penalty recovery journey with a team that puts quality and results first.
Let us know! Our product experts can configure the best solution for your business.
Technology has transformed the way financial markets operate. What was once dominated by traders making decisions on gut instinct and…
Financial markets have always been a complex ecosystem of data, patterns, and unpredictable human behavior. Over the last two decades,…
Zoho for Insurance Agents: End-to-End Brokerage Automation Solutions Infomaze teamed up with a prominent U.S.-based insurance brokerage firm, specializing in…
Zoho and Canopy Integration for Automating Accountancy Firm Operations: Case Study Infomaze, a Zoho Authorized Partner, helped a mid-sized accountancy…
Why do so many software projects fail to deliver on time, within budget, or meet user expectations? This is a…
Streamlining Lead Management with ERPNext – A CRM Transformation: Case Study A fast-growing B2B service provider approached us to overhaul…