Disavow Links Like a Boss: Cutts Says Two Strikes & You're Out

If you've been penalized by Google for violating the webmaster guidelines, (and you know who you are), consider yourself on double-secret probabtion. The next time, you could be out for good.

A new video (seen below) from Google's Matt Cutts addresses how the penalties for repeat SPAM offenders is more severe than for first timers.

Perhaps the most important point Cutts addressed in the video wasn't about how to rebound from the penalty (which includes aggressively disavowing links in a specific time frame), but that repeat offenders will likely get hit with a stronger penalty than someone who has tripped the spam filter for the very first time. Sort of a digital two-strikes and you're out kind of deal.   

"Google tends to look at buying and selling links that pass PageRank as a violation of our guidelines and if we see that happening multiple times, repeated times, then the actions that we take get more and more severe," Cutts said. "So we're more willing to take stronger action whenever we see repeated violations."