How Manual penalty or Disavow link works - from ex-Googler’s (don’t miss)

Recently at BrightonSEO 2013 last week, audience got the opportunity to ask several key questions to the below ex-Google employee’s:
Fili Wiese - Founder: Blackpixels
Jonas Weber - Consultant at webhelps!
Alfredo Pulvirenti - SEO TL @ StepStone Group

Though many of the questions were generic but some were very key questions & answers considering the recent Google Algorithmic updates like penguin and Panda. I have highlighted them below in a bulleted list:

Question: How does Google Webmaster Disavow tool works?

• Google are not doing anything currently with the data they collecting, unlikely to do anything soon.
• Use top level domain to disavow link rather than absolute url and Google also show  in the Google webmaster tool.  You can update the disavow link daily.
• Disavow even those links which has been removed as they may reappear at a later stage.
• It is wise to send a reconsideration request after some days of submitting the reconsideration request.

Question: How does Manual Penalty on a website works?

• Website is reviewed Multiple times by several individuals before a manual penalty is applied.
• Google only takes a look at the 10% of your back-link profile while reviewing any website for manual penalty.
• If you are hit by a manual penalty (as confirmed by Google in webmaster tool) then its worth remove the unnatural link rather then just change the anchor text.

Question: Does Google webmaster tool shows all backlinks considered by Google for a given website?

• Google Webmaster Tools only shows about 10% of your back links, it is not an exhaustive list of all your back links.

Question: Best ways to build backlinks?

• Build links from those websites which can help you get traffic, avoid building links only for search engines.
• You should not associate your brand to low level blogs/directories.
• When using guest posts, use your brand name for linking rather than keywords.

Question: What content you should have on your website?

• Rather than focusing on keywords, you should focus on creating content that solves your customers problems.

Question: How is social media important for rankings?

• Social media probably counts for only 1% towards your rankings.
• Focus more on how social is changing search priorities, not only how it will change rankings.
• Start now so you have an advantage for if and when they do start using/increase social signals for search.

If you have any further queries, get in touch with us or in the comment section below.