When you pass away, the last thing you expect is to cause disagreements between loved ones, but sadly this is all too common. In this article, we’re going to provide three tips for avoiding a probate dispute after you die.
When probate is contested, it means that someone is disputing the administration of the deceased person’s estate. This can concern a number of different things, from undue influence to fraud.
When you pass away, probate disputes can, unfortunately, happen, which for family members can be upsetting on top of their already experiencing grief. There are, however, ways to reduce the likelihood of a probate dispute occurring, from talking to family, to leaving a fair, equal inheritance and more.
To find out three tips for avoiding a probate dispute after you die, keep reading…
What Types of Contentious Probate Disputes Are There?
Contentious probate disputes can happen for various reasons. Common examples include:
Lack of testamentary capacity – when someone prepares a Will, they must have mental capacity and understand what a Will is and exactly what they are putting into their own
Lack of knowledge and approval – where the deceased did not understand the contents of the Will
Undue influence – where the deceased was influenced by another when drafting their Will
Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 – where a person who relied on the deceased did not have reasonable financial provision
Fraud
Forgery – where the Will was forged, or the signature was forged
Forfeiture – where the deceased was unlawfully killed, aided, abetted, counselled or procured by a beneficiary
Incorrect execution
Creditor claims – where the deceased owed money to an individual or business and the creditor brings a claim against the estate
For more information on contentious probate and the types of disputes, see help and advice’s article on Contentious Probate In 2022.
How Can You Prevent Probate Disputes?
1. Choose a Reputable Solicitor to Write Your Will
Picking the right solicitor from the get-go is crucial. You want to take a look at reviews, compare their services to other firms, see what their services include, arrange an initial discussion to put across your circumstances, see if they have accreditations, etc.
Word of mouth is often one way to find a good solicitor, but one person’s experience of a law firm might not be your own. If someone recommends a solicitor to you, make sure that you do some due diligence yourself before jumping into anything.
A good Will writing solicitor will do everything in their power to ensure your Will is drafted correctly and follows the required process, so it is classed as valid. A solicitor can also provide advice and guidance to make sure your Will is as tax efficient as possible and help to sidestep potential disputes after you pass.
2. Talk to Your Loved Ones About Your Choices
The best way to put a dispute to rest before it can even begin is by discussing your choices with your loved ones once you have made the decision.
You should not have to feel like you need to justify your actions, but if you have made a decision which you recognise could be considered controversial, it might make sense to explain your reasoning so they are aware and ready to expect it when you pass away.
Talking about your choices allows your loved ones to completely understand your views and intentions and helps them come to learn that the decisions you made weren’t a mistake or a forced view. Doing this will likely stop contentious probate from happening in the future.
3. Update Your Will Every Five Years
Often people presume when they have written a Will that one it’s done and dusted and they never have to write a new one again, but that is not the case.
Generally, you should update your Will every five years so that it exactly reflects your current circumstances, and when you experience a significant change in life, such as getting married, divorced, having a child, purchasing property, etc., you should update your Will so that it echoes this.
Updating your Will so that it aligns with your current circumstances can help to prevent any contentious disputes in the future.
Take the Precautions Before It’s Too Late
What we can conclude from our article is that it’s essential to prepare for the future, even the one you won’t be in. Studies into contentious probate have determined that one in four Wills are challenged, with the expectance of this increasing. See Legal Future’s article on why the rise in contentious probate cases is set to continue for further information.
Please be advised that this article is for general informational purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for advice from a trained wills and probate professional. Be sure to consult a wills and probate professional if you’re seeking advice about your will. We are not liable for risks or issues associated with using or acting upon the information on this site.
Google updated its policies for the Unavailable Videos Section of the Google Ads Technical Requirements Policy. The update explains additional reasons why a video ad may not serve. This should enable advertisers to understand what issues have arisen, why the ads aren’t showing, and how to resolve the issue.
Unavailable Videos. Google has unveiled four new examples of why a video ad may be disapproved.
Videos whose status is changed to “deleted” after submission
Videos whose status is changed to “private” after submission
Videos marked live premiere
Videos marked sponsors or members only
Fix a disapproved ad. If you need to fix an ad that was disapproved, you can follow the steps here.
Why we care. Attempting to hide a video after submitting it as an ad is a great way to get disapproved. Be sure to follow the technical requirements and guidelines when creating your ads, and fixing them immediately if your hosting service is down, or marked private.
The new ad creation process has advertisers first enter an objective; either reach, engage, or maximize sales. That first initial choice informs the available options and recommendations made downstream in the campaign creation.
Instacart says that “by minimizing the choices you have to make when creating campaigns this new framework streamlines the process. It also helps you to select the campaign tactics that are going to work best for the objective you select.”
Reach. When you want to reach the right consumers to generate awareness. These campaigns utilize behavioral targeting so you can do things like focus on consumers who haven’t bought your brand before but frequently buy from your category.
Engage. When you want to interact with consumers and start to build the path to the sale. These campaigns utilize keyword targeting and ad formats linked to your brand’s page on Instacart. They build inspiration and get consumers searching for related keywords to engage with you.
Maximize sales. Secure premium space on the digital shelf and drive more product sales.
Build your Own. Selecting this tells Ads Manager to not make any recommendations on campaign tactics. Instead, you manually select every aspect of your new campaign from every available option.
What Instacart says. “With this upgrade to Ads Manager, we’ve factored those discussions into the campaign creation flow; by focusing on the objective first, we can better focus our brand partners on the applicable options and tactics, speeding up some of the decision processes. This will help advertisers go live with an ad campaign faster and ultimately be more effective.”
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Dig deeper. You can read more about Instacart ads here.
Why we care. Instacart has joined the ranks of Facebook, Google, and Microsoft – all of which have the advertiser select an objective before completing the remainder of the campaign setup. With Instacart following suit, it should make it much easier for advertisers to switch between platforms, with little to no learning curve.
A home’s water and sewage systems are generally used with daily effectiveness. However, because these systems are frequently used, they can eventually become clogged or overwhelmed by debris. This can result in a clog or a backup in the system. These issues will make the water unable to flow through the pipes or drainage system. This blog provides essential information about drain cleaning for your home.
What Is Drain Cleaning?
Drain cleaning is a process that usually involves the use of a drain cleaner to unblock drains. The most common and usual causes of drain clogging are grease, hair and soap scum accumulating in pipes. With time, these substances harden into solid masses, blocking pipes and slowing water drainage from your sink or bathtub.
Why Do I Need Drain Cleaning Services?
Clogged drains not only affect your convenience but also cause property damage, as the roots of tree roots growing inside pipes can cause extensive damage to building foundations and walls. In addition, if you want to sell your home, clogged drains may be one of the reasons why potential buyers will turn down your offer.
How Often Should Someone Have Their Drains Cleaned?
Most homeowners ignore their clogged drains until they become so bad that they create severe problems with their plumbing systems. However, if you have any family member who suffers from allergies or asthma problems, in that case, it is better to call a professional plumber immediately once you notice any trouble in your drains.
Why Clogged Drains Happen
There are very many reasons why you might have a clogged drain. Some of them are easy to fix, while others require professional assistance. Below are a few common causes:
Grease and food scraps are the most common reasons for clogged drains. These items should never go down your kitchen sink because they can cause severe blockages in your pipes and sewer system.
Sanitary products: Tampons, napkins and other feminine hygiene products usually break down quickly when flushed down the toilet. Still, sometimes they get caught in plumbing pipes and cause problems with drainage. Suppose you flush these items down the toilet. In that case, they can get stuck in your pipes before reaching a wastewater treatment facility.
How Can Someone Prevent Clogs in the First Place?
Clogged drains can be a significant inconvenience and even put you at risk of flooding. If you’ve ever experienced a clog, then you know how troublesome they can be. The fantastic news is that there are so many more ways to prevent clogs in the first place. Here are some tips:
Use a drain snake to break up hair and debris in the pipe before plunging it. The clog will be easier to remove with a plunger or snake.
Pour baking soda down your drain, followed by vinegar and watch as it fizzes away the clogging debris from your pipes. This should unclog your drain within minutes.
If you’ve got children or pets in the house, make sure they don’t flush paper towels down the toilet or play with toothpicks under running water; they’ll cause major blockages down the road.
When Should Someone Call a Plumber for Help with a Clogged Drain?
If all of the drains in your home are experiencing slow flow or even complete stoppage, then it might be time to call a plumber for help with a clogged drain. This kind of situation could be due to several reasons, including poor plumbing design or lack of maintenance on your part. It could also mean that there’s definitely something wrong with your sewer pipes or septic system.
A Pipe Repair Company Will Clear Your Drain
You might think cleaning your drain will save time and money in the long run because you won’t have to call a plumber whenever something goes wrong with your plumbing system. This isn’t actually true. In fact, it could take much longer than if you had called a pipe repair company immediately. For example, if there are multiple clogs in one area of your house or building (such as various toilets), each one will need its unique cleaning.
Clean Drains Make for a Less Stressful Life
Drain cleaning is important for your home’s health and keeps it from getting damaged by the buildup of gunk and grime in your pipes. The longer you wait to have your drains cleaned, the more likely it is that you’ll find yourself having to call a plumber out for emergency drain cleaning.
Clean drains make the world go round. When they’re clogged, everything slows down, from getting ready in the morning to enjoying your favourite evening activity.
Conclusion
If you think that drain cleaning is pretty straightforward, you better think again. There is much more to it than meets the eye and plenty of things that can go wrong. Hopefully, this blog has been able to demystify drain cleaning a bit, but you’ll remember the above information the next time your drain is clogged.
Google’s My Ad Center today will start rolling out to users, globally, to provide control over the kinds of ads they see across Google on Search, YouTube and Discover.
“81% of consumers are more concerned with how their data is being used and 48% are turning away from services due to privacy concerns. At the same time, our research also says that people only want to see ads that are relevant and useful to them,” says Jerry Dischler, VP/GM Google Ads. “To build more trust, we want to continue ensuring that ads respect people’s privacy; and offer transparency, choice, and control. We see these principles as foundational to the future of advertising. It is a key priority for our business – and the foundation My Ad Center was built on.”
New features and controls. The new My Ad Center controls will also allow you to block sensitive ads and learn more about the information used to personalize your ad experience.
More controls for activities used to personalize ads. My Ad Center expands Google’s privacy controls to allow users more direct control over which data sources — specifically Web & App Activity and YouTube History — are used to personalize your ads across Google Search, YouTube and Discover.
Expanding user control for sensitive categories. In My Ad Center, users have the ability to see fewer ads in five sensitive categories:
Alcohol.
Dating.
Gambling.
Pregnancy and parenting.
Weight loss.
Before, this feature affected ads shown on YouTube and Display. Now, it expands to ads shown on Search and Discover.
Advertiser pages. To give people even more transparency, Google is enhancing ad disclosures with new advertiser pages. Users can access these disclosures in the new My Ad Center panel and see the ads a specific verified advertiser has run over the past 30 days.
How it works. In My Ad Center, users can tap on the three-dot menu next to an ad type they want to see less of. They can also choose to see ads about things that they care about, like deals for sneakers or holiday gifts for loved ones, according to examples provided by Google.
Users can also completely turn off ad personalization. Those who choose not to see personalized ads, will still be served ads, but Google says those ads may be less relevant or useful.
More privacy controls. With the new My Ad Center added controls, you can see what information Google uses and control it based on your preferences. You can decide what types of your Google activity are used to show you ads.
In the past, if your YouTube History was on, it automatically informed how your ads were personalized. Now, if you don’t want your YouTube History to be used for ads personalization, you can turn it off in My Ad Center, without impacting relevant recommendations in your feed.
What Google says. Dischler adds, “I see our role in this evolving industry as innovating through our products. Building products that are secure by default, private by design, and put the control of data in the hands of our consumers. When it comes to advertisers, publishers, and our other partners, we are taking a privacy-preserving approach to advertising, built on first-party data, and unlocked by the benefits of machine learning.”
“We are doing all this because we believe it’s essential to the open web to build a long-term stable ads ecosystem. And we intend to help navigate the industry to a privacy-first, pro-consumer-focused future.”
Dig deeper. You can read more info about the new My Ad Center experience here.
Why we care. Since Google’s announcement of My Ad Center in May, we have been waiting for it to roll out to users globally. With the sunsetting of cookies in 2024, the new privacy features give users their best chance at privacy and having a say in the ads they are served.
Additionally, the new features could be a benefit to advertisers as well since users who take advantage of My Ad Center will have access to the ads and brands they are most interested in. Advertisers will also benefit from higher ad relevance.
Google reserves the right to apply manual actions, which are more often called penalties within SEO, to websites it finds in violation of its Search Essentials (previously known as Google’s Webmaster Guidelines).
The specific reasons and scope of manual actions can be manifold, and the actual impact may range from barely noticeable to utterly disastrous for a website’s presence in organic Google Search results.
This guide describes what types of penalties exist, demystifies Google’s messaging, and explains how to go about successfully getting a Google manual action removed.
We’ll cover the following violations and notifications:
Since 2012, Google has scaled up its communication efforts via Google Search Console (previously known as Google Webmaster Tools) about website issues that are likely to negatively impact how visible a site ends up being in organic Google search for relevant user queries.
This guide focuses on how you should interpret and respond to these notifications, which Google euphemistically calls “warnings,” many of which are related to Google Search Essentials violations – spammy techniques spotted by the Google Search Quality team deemed egregious enough to trigger sanctions.
But notifications aren’t solely about using techniques that are in opposition to Google’s guidelines.
We’ll also explore some warnings about issues that could be considered sins of omission, in that the site owner has failed to secure the site – allowed it to host spam or be hacked – or has failed to implement structured data markup correctly.
Google also brings attention to technical issues it identifies. While these may equally impact a site’s visibility in organic Google search, they are not related to any Google guideline violations and will be omitted here.
That said, any piece of information highlighted in Google Search Console should be considered important and be taken seriously.
All sample messages discussed in this guide have been spotted “in the wild” within the last 24 months as of this writing. Older messages, not issued in years, such as the warning highlighting hidden content are not included in the manual action overview.
All sample screenshots have been adapted to highlight the most relevant pieces of information that provide guidance on how to resolve the existing issue.
On-page guideline violations and related notifications
This set of violations and notifications apply to problems that have been identified on a site.
Major and pure spam problems
When site owners receive the manual action notification highlighting major spam problems, Google has identified the page content as entirely spammy, with no value to users.
This message tends to indicate that, at the time the recipient reads it, the most severe consequence has already come into effect and, in the majority of cases, the website is completely gone from organic Google Search. In some instances, however, the removal may affect only a subset of site pages.
Major spam problems Google notification, with its most crucial point highlighted.
A rare variation of the major spam problems action highlights the gravity of the violation in more stark wording, referring to the website as pure spam. That message seems to be on the verge of being deprecated as in recent months it has been sporadically registered (in comparison to the major spam penalty, which is very common).
When issued, the pure spam problems penalty seems to be most frequently related to user-agent (or similar) cloaking. Displaying vastly different content to search engine bots and users based on the user-agent has become rare. At the same time, Google has stepped up their detection methods. This is a likely explanation for why this specific penalty has become less frequent.
Pure spam problems Google notification, with its most crucial points highlighted.
Both major spam and pure spam problem notifications indicate that the site affected has, at a fundamental level, failed to live up to Google users’ expectations. The major spam penalty is most frequently applied to scraped content and/or gibberish sites.
Spam problems
The message highlighting just spam problems is a toned-down version of the major spam problems notification. The wording is similar, albeit less bleak.
While past variations of this message occasionally mentioned specifically “thin content” and/or “internal doorway pages,” recently a single message applied more generally to “spam problems” has become the standard.
This manual action suggests that, while the website isn’t entirely bad, bits and pieces are not good enough. That could refer to thin content (generally considered spammy), and it may very well refer to doorway pages – which, by definition, must be of low quality, as their primary purpose is to redirect users to another location rather than immediately providing an answer.
Typically, a penalty associated with the spam problems message does not result in complete removal from Google Search. Querying the site: search operator will often confirm that the site is still indexed, though it will likely be much less visible in organic Google Search results.
Google may try to go about the penalty surgically, penalizing only the offending pages and folders, but leaving the rest of the site intact. That tends to be the case if the violation is clearly isolatable, e.g., doorway pages are located exclusively within a directory like example.com/doorways/.
The exact scope of the penalty is usually not revealed to the site owner, and it can, therefore, be difficult to determine the impact the penalty has on site visibility.
How to go about removing the penalty
Removing this penalty will require a thorough site review, especially with regard to content quality. Large sites are better off conducting an all-out audit in order to identify which content is being indexed and which is not.
For the thin content, you will need to decide if (and how) it can be improved to meet standards, or if it is best to utilize noindex to avoid indexing low-quality content (which could possibly improve crawl budget distribution in the long run as well).
The evaluation process must include a landing page engagement assessment. It must not be driven by looking at word counts. It is not the length of content that may be an important factor, but rather how useful and engaging the content is to users.
Before a reconsideration request can be submitted to Google, doorway pages will need to be removed, and the content strategy will require revamping (often shifting toward less content that is more useful and robust).
All these steps are to be properly documented for the reconsideration request in order to put the best foot forward.
Regardless of the penalty applied, under no circumstances should an empty or placeholder page with a bare “Hello world!” message be submitted for reconsideration.
Google clearly states in their notifications that such sites/pages do not qualify for reconsideration and will be rejected due to insufficient efforts made.
A blank or placeholder page instead of a thin content site is no substitute and will be deemed an insufficient effort for a reconsideration request to be successful.
Manual penalties in regard to thin content tend to affect large websites with tens of thousands or more crawlable and indexable pages.
A successful reconsideration with the very first attempt is an achievable goal, and a speedy recovery is possible.
Cases of sites actually doing better in organic Google Search after dropping their thin content and focusing on quality landing pages are not uncommon.
Unlike sites hit with major spam or pure spam penalties, sites affected by this manual action are not fundamentally on a collision course with Google Search Essentials. In most cases, improvements are needed and a fresh start from square one is required.
Thin content
The Google thin content warning is triggered in Google Search Console when a website is found to lack substantially in added value.
That is not to say that websites deemed by Google as thin content websites contain few landing pages or too little content. They may contain large amounts of content, that is however also readily available across many other websites.
This is why the thin content penalty is often applied to heavily monetized affiliate websites with prominently displayed commercial intent, so-called MfA (or “made for AdSense”) websites, and monetized scraped content websites.
Google and other search engines do not generally frown upon affiliation or monetization of websites as long as these add some unique value.
That said, websites that seem to be templated, do not represent a real brand nor provide tangible information about their authors tend to add little to the diversity of search results.
Search engines are interested in providing users diverse results, instead of ranking almost identical websites for a given query.
As a consequence of the thin content penalty, a website can be expected to initially drop in organic search rankings significantly, then continue to slowly decline after the first nosedive.
Without a discernible unique selling proposition, Google may consider a website to be thin content.
Convincing Google to lift the thin content penalty imposed, while possible, may require both pruning poor landing pages and enriching existing landing pages with fresh, relevant content.
In many cases, using data in order to provide relevant and unique information is a great way to make the website stand out.
Next to compelling About us and contact information as well as consistent, high-quality brand representation, a Google Reconsideration Request rationale outlining the specific added value the website represents is likely to be required in order to get back to Google’s good graces.
News and Discover
In a drive to combat false information and maintain information quality standards, Google has sharpened their focus on news and media website content quality. In consequence, the public list of News and Discover policy violations has been substantially expanded.
Online news platforms now face more scrutiny with regard to the factual accuracy of published content. At the same time, misleading, antisocial, offensive and explicit content has become less acceptable.
As these policies are being enforced, offending websites are confronted with a number of Google Search Console penalty messages.
The consequence of an imposed News and Discover-related penalty is always a significant (if at times much delayed) drop in organic Google Search results.
If a penalty is left to linger for a prolonged period of time, the entire website’s visibility in SERPs is certain to continuously, slowly decline.
Potential News and Discover violations which may trigger a Google penalty include, among others, explicit, unqualified medical or otherwise misleading content.
The confirmed offense is typically accurately described in the Google Search Console message received. Google often chooses to pinpoint specific URL examples representative of the behavior that triggered the penalty.
While never exhaustive, these examples are tremendously helpful in the initial stages of the analysis and penalty recovery effort.
Regaining Google’s confidence with the prospect of improved future rankings depends largely on how thorough the clean-up effort, preceding a reconsideration request submission, really is.
Because Google is unlikely to issue a penalty for relatively minor offenses, any website actually penalized is almost certainly violating Google policies in an excessive way.
For that reason affected websites face the prospect of editing or purging a substantial amount of the offending content.
Merely removing problematic landing pages, without supplementing the website with quality content is typically not considered a comprehensive effort though.
AMP content mismatch
In line with the objective to ensure a fast user experience, Google continues to push AMP as a desirable technical solution. This policy spills over into Google Search Essentials, where content parity for all users is specifically required.
Google strives to keep the user experience as consistent as possible. Therefore, displaying significantly different content or offering a substantially different user experience to mobile and desktop users constitutes a Google Search Essentials violation.
AMP landing pages are not required to match the content on their original, canonical landing pages 100%. But the gist of the content, including the user experience, must be comparable for users regardless of the device used to access it.
This is why Google does not like users to have to navigate from an AMP landing page to another landing page in order to access the actual content. The latter solution in effect makes an AMP page a doorway page, which Google considers an egregious Google Search Essentials violation.
Unlike most Google penalties, the AMP content mismatch warning does not trigger sitewide repercussions. Instead, Google takes a more nuanced approach dropping only the rankings of AMP landing pages of a website. All other contents of the website remain unaffected.
This may appear as a relatively light penalty. However, no Google penalty should be left to linger for a prolonged period of time.
Google recommends utilizing the URL inspection tool to test the parity of both AMP and canonical landing pages and in doing so ensure a uniform experience for all users.
Once the landing pages can be considered similar enough, a reconsideration request including a compelling rationale briefly outlining the changes introduced should be submitted.
Alternatively, a technological switch can be considered a viable option. With AMP limitations in mind, the Google penalty imposed due to parity issues can be considered a stepping stone toward embracing a more robust technical solution, such as progressive web apps.
Cloaking and redirects
Search engines, including Google, want to rank ultimate destination landing pages. When a landing page redirects users, it is likely that search engines prefer to rank the final destination page, instead of an intermediary landing page.
There are of course legitimate reasons for maintaining redirects, which do not trigger any search engine sanctions.
However, when Google deems the intention of redirects to be deceptive (e.g., to intentionally redirect unsuspecting users to strongly commercialized landing pages), a manual spam action is likely to be applied to the website.
At the same time, Google considers showing significantly different landing pages to search engine bots and to human users known as cloaking as equally deceptive.
Similar to using redirects, when cloaking is implemented, search engines can’t trust that users will be presented with the expected content. From a search engine’s perspective, their user’s experience is likely to suffer, which they cannot ignore.
Since both cloaking and sneaky redirects are considered egregious Google Search Essentials violations, websites penalized for these offenses are likely to experience an imminent, steep drop in Google Search rankings.
In rare, extremely egregious instances, websites have even been known to be temporarily removed from Google’s index entirely.
When landing pages show different content to search engines and human users or when users are redirected, Google is likely to penalize the deceptive behavior.
Lifting a penalty applied for cloaking and/or sneaky redirects requires a thorough clean-up and documentation effort first. All deceptive behavior must be discontinued entirely.
Because of the egregiousness of the violation, haphazard changes to the website will only prolong the penalty.
Once all cloaking and/or deceptive redirects have been removed, it is best to conduct a crawling test, before a compelling Reconsideration Request can be submitted to Google.
User-generated spam
User-generated spam tends to be an issue for large, user-driven sites. If this penalty is applied, that generally indicates that the affected site is being exploited by spammers.
Here, Google is essentially asking the site owner to get their own house in order – or else.
The message usually includes a sample URL where user-generated spam has been detected. Accordingly, the penalty’s impact (removal from Google Search results) is limited to the exact URL or directory mentioned.
While this may seem like a small price to pay, it is important to see the big picture. Sites affected by user-generated spam often receive a lot of user-generated spam messages, even on pages not identified by Google.
If the vulnerability isn’t swiftly taken care of, chances are there will be thousands of potentially malicious, user-generated pages which Google will remove from their index in order to protect their users.
Ignoring a specific Google manual action message is never a good idea and a particularly dangerous strategy in the case of user-generated spam.
If you’ve received a message, that indicates Google deems the site useful but neglected. Thus, they raise the issue to help.
Hoping for the best, or for Google to fix the issue at their end, isn’t going to solve the problem.
Solving user-generated spam is mostly a technical challenge and rather simple when compared with the previously discussed penalties applied for spam content.
The following security measures should be considered and implemented as necessary:
Make sure your forum or discussion software is up to date, especially with regard to any security patches that have been issued.
Use moderation capabilities for the following:
Blacklist obviously spammy words or inappropriate words (like pharma-related) and continue to add to your blacklists based on spam that you’re seeing.
Identify and review content when a single account or IP address accounts for a large volume of posts in a short time.
Subject posts from new members or new posters to editorial review before they are published, lifting the restriction once they have established themselves as trustworthy.
Limit users’ ability to link.
Consider disallowing links entirely or allowing only trusted contributors with spotless track records to link to other sites.
If you allow links, you may nofollow them to remove some of the incentives to link externally.
Close comments or discussions on threads after a reasonable period of time, as they’ll often collect spam after real users have ceased to engage with them.
Beyond getting you back in Google’s good graces, all of these steps are in the best interests of your business anyway, as they’ll help protect your brand integrity and your relationship with your user base.
User-generated spam can trigger limited spam removal action. The problem, if neglected, will likely grow and can prompt more severe consequences.
Hacked content spam
The hacked content spam penalty resembles user-generated spam for one reason: It is a case of a compromised website that is being abused by spammers to inject malicious and/or irrelevant content without the site owner’s consent.
Again, Google’s message includes a sample URL, which provides a clue to where to start the investigation and what type of content to look for while cleansing the site of spam.
There are, however, two important differences between hacked content spam and user-generated spam.
First, the hacked content spam penalty is applied to sites that are not user-driven and where the vulnerability isn’t caused by poor quality enforcement, but rather insufficient security.
Second, the consequence of a hacked content spam action is a prominent label in SERPs, warning users of the possible threat if they dare to open the website. This means imminent and potentially lasting loss of user traffic coming from organic Google Search.
In this instance, Google provides some assistance. But ultimately, you need to identify a permanent solution.
A simple clean-up and malicious content removal alone are not likely to have the desired effect unless the underlying vulnerability is identified and patched.
As in all previous cases, submitting a compelling reconsideration request is the first step toward resolving the problem and removing the “hacked” SERP label.
Legitimate, yet compromised, websites run the risk of misrepresentation in search engine results. Fixing the issue is the only way to remove a SERP warning, as it is a necessity to protect users and brand integrity.
Hacked sites remain indexed and visible to Google Search users. However, they are labeled with a prominent warning and therefore are likely to be disregarded by users.
Incorrect structured data
Structured data is as much a means of making the content and context of a website better understood by search engines as it is a method to claim more SERP real estate.
When properly implemented, structured data can enhance your SERP listing with an eye-catching display known as a “rich snippet.”
The image below depicts the commonly seen Review rich snippet.
Sites with poorly implemented or deceptive structured data are likely to lose their additional SERP real estate.
The prospect of obtaining a rich snippet is enticing, especially in competitive verticals, which is why attempts to game the system using inflated or deceptive structured data are very much on Google’s radar.
If spotted, a notification highlighting incorrect structured data is the consequence, and your rich snippets will no longer appear in search results.
The recovery and reconsideration process is similar to what you would do for other types of manual penalties.
House cleaning, spotless implementation and documentation are key. In practical terms, once the confidence in the accuracy of structured data is lost, fully regaining it is rare.
Gaming structured data is, therefore, a risky business. It is not only not recommended, but it is also likely to indefinitely impact the look and feel of a site in Google SERPs.
Google does not seem to appreciate incorrect or deceiving information, which is why losing structured data once may mean doing without them for an extended period of time.
Unnatural outbound links
Selling links for the purpose of manipulating PageRank is yet another Google Search Essentials violation that triggers a corresponding manual action and a message highlighting the issue.
Unlike in the past, however, the associated penalty does not necessarily cause a dramatic loss of site visibility in organic Google Search nowadays.
That said, the penalty is not to be taken lightly. Given the site owner’s total control over their own website, narrowing down the problem and applying a suitable solution, such as no-following questionable links, is easy and requires comparatively few resources.
Initially, an unnatural outbound links penalty rarely correlates with a massive loss of visibility in organic Google Search results.
Spammy free host
When free hosting providers receive a Google Search Console penalty notification highlighting a spammy free host, Google has deemed an overwhelming majority of the user content hosted to be either spammy or otherwise of no value to internet users.
The specific Google Search Console message notifies the recipient and free host operator of the impending impact on the entire service’s visibility in Google Search results. In most cases, the service remains indexed by Google and can be found when users apply an exact, navigational query, e.g., site:example.ai.
However, the service is most likely to temporarily lose nearly all SERP visibility, even for what may be considered relevant queries. Because the entire website is affected, rather than only granular parts of the service, the spammy free host manual spam action is considered a harsh penalty.
Historically, Google seems to have been reluctant to take these wide-reaching measures against free hosting platforms, unless in the most egregious cases.
Confirmed past cases indicate that only free hosting services with approximately 99% of the indexable user-generated content abused, have been penalized as spammy free hosts.
Spammy free host notification in the Google Search Console, highlighting the egregious nature of the ongoing platform abuse.
Despite the excessive scale of the spam problem highlighted, Google still refrains from applying the ultimate penalty, comparable to pure spam, to remove the entire free hosting service from the index.
It is worth noting that the Google Search Console notification is brought exclusively to the free hosting service operators’ attention. Its legitimate users remain unaware of the impact on their content’s visibility in organic Google Search results.
This reflects the fact that only the service operator is in a position to impose some level of quality control and spam abuse prevention, which is a necessary step to build a comprehensive case before submitting a Google reconsideration request.
Off-page guideline violations and related notifications
While a site owner may theoretically be unable to control what other places link to the site, risky practices like buying links or spamming other sites have led Google to be concerned with off-page issues as well.
Unnatural inbound links
The most frequently experienced Google manual action by far is the one applied as a consequence of unnatural inbound links to a website.
Affected sites are deemed to be engaging in link schemes (link building intended to manipulate Google rankings), which Google considers a major violation. The penalty’s impact can be partial or affect the entire domain.
The consequent loss in visibility in Google ranges anywhere from barely noticeable to a steady decline over time to a dramatic total loss of visibility overnight. The vertical and brand prominence seem to play no role – large, reputable sites have been affected by this penalty.
Very rarely, we’ve seen sample URLs (even as many as five) listed on the unnatural inbound links message, which gives the site owner a starting point for their investigation. These samples may be of great use if they can indicate the pattern that raised a red flag – for example, if they all show low-quality PR services that scrape and reproduce pieces that include commercial anchor text links.
Whether examples are provided or not, it is vital to conduct a full backlink audit. Based on that evaluation – which, depending on the backlink data volume, could take up to several weeks – all questionable backlinks are to be noted in a separate file.
It is important to bear in mind that, for large websites with millions of backlinks, samples provided in Google Search Console will likely be too fragmented and offer insufficient data for a successful reconsideration request. Therefore, you must identify all of the questionable links yourself before asking to be reconsidered.
To boost the prospects for a favorable result with the very first reconsideration request, it is crucial to consider not only backlink volumes and distribution, but also the linking site’s quality and its general approach to linking out.
A solid backlink risk assessment is inclusive of all historic linking liabilities, without neglecting any legacy link building remnants, like directory entries of a long-gone SEO era.
Once you’ve created a file containing all your questionable or spammy backlinks, it’s time to work on getting those links removed from the web. This may require reaching out and asking other websites to take down links to your site or have them marked as “nofollow.”
Any spammy backlinks that you are not able to get removed, despite your best efforts, should be isolated and included in a .txt file called a disavow file.
Once the review is finalized and a disavow file created, it is recommended to upload the disavow file first (and receive confirmation of the change) before submitting documentation outlining all relevant steps taken to resolve the issues Google has highlighted.
The first step upon receiving an unnatural inbound links message is to compare the backlink profile and current link building practice against Google Search Essentials.
Reconsideration requests and related notifications
Any Google penalty can be lifted and the website will not be held back because of past transgressions.
If you’ve received a manual action and have made a good faith effort to fix the issues that triggered it, you can request for Google to review your site so that you can have the penalty lifted.
This is what is known as filing a reconsideration request.
Any time you receive a manual action notification, it should outline all the steps you should take to rectify the problem. These steps will vary depending on the specific penalty that has been issued.
Once you’ve satisfied all of the requirements outlined by Google, the final step should contain a “Reconsideration Request” button that will initiate the process once clicked.
As part of the reconsideration request process, you may need to provide the Google team with documentation outlining the steps you have taken to bring the site into compliance with Google Search Essentials. This will help build a case for why the manual action should be lifted.
Once you’ve fixed all your website issues and submitted a reconsideration request, you may receive one of the following notifications in Google Search Console.
Disavow file updated notification
Any promising attempt to resolve a manual action related to unnatural backlinks will involve submitting a disavow file, which contains all the spammy backlinks to your site that you were unable to remove.
Submitting your disavow file will trigger a message confirming that a disavow file has been uploaded. It will specify the number of URLs and domains submitted.
Please note that while updating an existing disavow file, previously submitted URLs will be overwritten unless they are expressly included in a new file that is about to be submitted. Google’s Disavow Links Tool does not, as of this writing, support incremental updates.
Not a manual action message, but a confirmation that the first step toward resolving an unnatural inbound links penalty has been made.
Reconsideration request (submission confirmed)
If you’ve received a manual action and have made a good faith effort to fix the issues that triggered it, you can request for Google to review your site so that you can have the penalty lifted. This is what is known as a reconsideration request.
After you submit your site for reconsideration, Google will confirm receiving a reconsideration request in the same way they acknowledge receiving a disavow file. The specific text seems to vary, often to manage expectations regarding the expected processing time.
Currently, there’s no officially guaranteed turnaround time for reconsideration requests to be processed. Experience shows that this process can take anywhere from a few hours (rare) to a few days (more common) to several weeks (worst-case scenario).
Google does acknowledge receiving a reconsideration request and includes the rationale provided underneath their message. In this case, because of the haphazard rationale, prospects for succeeding are bleak.
Reconsideration request rejected
If the efforts made to get back into Google’s good graces are deemed insufficient, a reconsideration request rejected message is forthcoming. That message seems to be uniform and merely states the active status of the penalty.
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 Search Essentials, or there’s little chance of eventual success.
A standard reconsideration request rejected message is most common for sites that have not been sufficiently aligned with Google Search Essentials. 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.
Reconsideration request processed
The majority of all reconsideration requests submitted to Google are processed and either approved or rejected.
However, there are rare exceptions in a small number of edge cases where a clear-cut decision does not seem to be possible. These cases are met with a Reconsideration request processed notification.
Judging by the wording, this seems to indicate that while a worthwhile effort was recognized, there’s more than just one type of violation present.
This may explain why it implies that one penalty may have been lifted while another one was refined.
A rare Reconsideration request processed notification, which almost always seems to come with a friendly reviewer hint.
Without a doubt, this message does not mean good news for the site’s owner – or the site’s visibility. Consequently, more investigative work is required.
There’s a silver lining on the horizon, however.
Most reconsideration request processed notifications come with a specific “note from your reviewer.” This is a manually edited message from a sympathetic Googler trying to help – an encouraging signal for the site’s future prospects.
Aside from mentioning that the penalty has been lifted, this notification makes it clear that coming back into compliance with Google Search Essentials does not necessarily mean that your site will experience improved rankings in organic Google Search. The site may grow in visibility, stagnate or drop.
There’s no further action required once this message is received, other than focusing on users and the core of the website activity again. It is the best possible outcome to be expected.
The reconsideration request approved notification says the spam situation is resolved and there is no further action required.
Any questions about Google’s manual penalties not addressed sufficiently in this article are welcome and appreciated. All reader input received will be considered to keep this ultimate guide covering manual penalties up to date.
The technology industry is still expanding dramatically, and with it grows the consumers’ interests and demands for electronic devices. Unfortunately, this leaves old, unwanted devices discarded and forgotten, thus contributing to a growing e-waste problem.
What Is E-waste?
E-waste refers to any electronic device or product that contains electronic components that are at the end of their usable life cycle and discarded. Some examples of e-waste are:
Solar panels
Smart TVs
Laptops
PCs
Smartphones
Refrigerators
This list is not exhaustive. With the expansion of the technology industry, many of the products we use daily have electrical components. This, of course, makes e-waste a bigger issue when these devices are improperly disposed of.
Linear Model
There is a linear model for electronic products. First, companies take whatever resources they need to produce it. Then the customer purchases it, uses it until it breaks or until there is a new model, and then tosses it.
Companies and manufacturers know the value of electronic devices and the consumers’ desire for them. Many of the electronic devices produced have short life cycles. The idea is for them to break at some point so that the consumers continue to purchase and the companies continue to profit. Brands and companies continue to produce newer models, because consumers tend to gravitate toward what is new.
Environmental Impacts
Tons of e-waste end up in landfills or are incinerated every year, and the impact it has on the environment makes it one of the fastest-growing risks.
Electronic devices contain hazardous substances, such as mercury and brominated Flame retardants. Burning them and throwing them away have many impacts.
Air
When e-waste is incinerated, harmful chemicals and pollutants are released into the air, and the particles can travel for miles and create risks for both animals and humans. Breathing in the toxins from e-waste can permanently damage the respiratory system and cause neurological damage.
Soil
E-waste contaminates soil and landfills. When disposing e-waste, heavy metals and flame retardants deep into the soil can damage its pH levels and composition. e-waste pollution remains in the soil for a long period of time and ultimately is harmful to microorganisms in both the soil and plants. This can harm animals that rely on these plants for consumption.
Water
Once the e-waste has contaminated the soil, it makes its way further into the earth and into the groundwater, which eventually connects it to pawns, rivers, streams, and lakes. This contamination makes the bodies of water toxic and acidic, which is unsafe for the surrounding plants, animals, and communities. Contaminated bodies of water can destroy complete ecosystems.
Circular Economy
One of the possible solutions for eliminating the amount of e-waste every year is by implementing a circular economy.
In a circular economy, products and materials are made to minimize resources, reduce waste, and reduce carbon emissions. The idea is to keep products in use for as long as possible, repairing, recycling, and redesigning them for repeated use. At the end of their life cycles, their materials can remain in the economy and can be reused.
For electronic devices, this can mean consumers purchase services, not the products. Electronic devices can remain the property of the manufacturers, who would be in charge of repairing, recycling, and selling the products. Because they would be solely responsible for them, manufacturers would better design their products to last longer and be easier to recycle so that they could reuse those materials. In turn, this can help them save money. Essentially, we would start seeing electronic devices with longer life cycles and less e-waste in landfills.
Steps
A circular economy would be a huge step in solving the country’s e-waste problem, but implementing this kind of economy could take years. It involves many policy changes in businesses and alterations and manufacturing. However, until then, the presence of e-waste is still an issue. To lessen e-waste now, there are steps consumers can begin taking to help alleviate the problem.
Proper Recycling
Electronic devices contain valuable metals, like gold, copper, and silver, which are reusable precious resources. Unfortunately, only about 20% of e-waste properly recycles. Thus, these resources are dumped and burned every year.
When we mine the earth’s crust for fresh resources, we generate more CO2 emissions, which contribute to our Environmental issues. Harvesting these resources from e-waste instead of the earth is a way to generate fewer emissions. In addition, these resources help in creating new products.
Many communities have e-waste collection days, in which customers drop off electronics at collection centers. This keeps the electronics out of landfills and ensures their reuse.
Buying or Selling
If consumers are looking to make profit from their old electronic devices, there is always the option of reselling them. Not only can electronic devices be sold to local consignment stores, through yard sales, and at Pawn shops, but there are also places online that will buy your phone and other electronic devices.
When consumers look to upgrade their devices, the chances are that someone else is offering a used version of that device. Instead of going to the store outright and purchasing it, consumers can buy used electronic devices. This extends the products’ life cycles and keeps them out of landfills.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, e-waste is going to be a problem for years. However, there are possible solutions and things we can start doing today to limit this waste.
As an entrepreneur, it is easy to be bogged down in the day-to-day tasks of running a business. However, experts like Aduke McCoy in Erlanger, KY, know it is important to remember that you also have a life outside work! To be successful, you need to find a way to balance your career with your personal life. Here are a few tips on how to do that:
Schedule Time for Yourself
Aduke McCoy says one of the most important things you can do for yourself is to schedule time for things you enjoy outside of work. This could be anything from working out to taking a cooking class. The key is to find something that relaxes and rejuvenates you so that you can return to work refreshed and ready to take on whatever challenges come your way.
One way to help you stick to your schedule is to find an accountability partner. This could be a friend, family member, or even a co-worker. Having someone to check in with will help you stay on track and ensure you are making time for yourself.
Get Organized
Another way to balance your career and personal life is to get organized. This means setting up a system that works for you and sticking to it. This could be anything from using a daily planner to setting up a weekly email reminder of upcoming deadlines.
One way to stay organized is to keep a list of things you need to do at work and at home. This way, you can see everything in one place and easily prioritize what needs to be done.
Set Office Hours
If you work from home, it can be easy to let work bleed into your personal life. To prevent this, set office hours and stick to them. This means developing a specific time when you start and stop working each day. Once your office hours are over, close your laptop and walk away from your desk.
If you have trouble sticking to office hours, try setting a timer. Once the timer goes off, stop working and focus on your personal life.
Prioritize Your Mental Health
Aduke McCoy says mental health is just as important as physical health. Therefore, making time for relaxation, exercise, and healthy eating is essential. Taking care of yourself will help you stay focused and productive at work and home.
If you struggle to balance your career and personal life, it is essential to seek help. There are several resources available to help you manage your stress and anxiety. Talking to a therapist or counselor can be extremely helpful in managing your mental health.
Make Time for Friends and Family
It is also essential to make time for the people you care about. Whether going out to dinner with friends or taking your kids to the park, carving out time in your schedule to connect with loved ones will help you stay sane when work is incredibly stressful.
An excellent way to ensure you are making time for your loved ones is to schedule regular check-ins. This could be a weekly phone call with a friend or a monthly dinner date with your family. Regular check-ins will help you stay connected and ensure your relationships get the attention they deserve.
Plan Ahead
One of the best ways to balance your career and personal life is to plan. This means taking a few minutes each day to think about what you need to accomplish at work and home. By taking the time to plan, you will be able to focus better on each task and avoid getting overwhelmed.
One way to help you plan is to use a planner or scheduling app. This can help you keep track of deadlines, appointments, and other important events. Having everything in one place will make it easier for you to stay on top of your work and personal commitments.
Take Breaks
Aduke McCoy says it is important to remember that you cannot do everything all at once. To be productive, you need to take breaks throughout the day. This could be anything from getting up to stretch your legs to taking a few minutes to meditate. The key is to find what works for you and make sure you are taking the time to recharge.
One way to ensure you are taking breaks is to set a timer. Once the timer goes off, take a few minutes before returning to work. This will help you stay focused and avoid burning out.
Take Vacations
Finally, do not forget to take a vacation! It is essential to unplug from work occasionally and give yourself a chance to recharge. Whether it’s a long weekend getaway or a two-week trip abroad, taking some time off will help you come back to work feeling refreshed and ready to take on whatever comes your way.
When you are planning your vacation, be sure to schedule some downtime. This means taking a few days to relax and do nothing. This can be hard for entrepreneurs who are used to being constantly busy, but it is essential to give yourself a break. By taking the time to relax, you will return from your vacation feeling refreshed and ready to work.
Final Notes
Balancing your career as an entrepreneur can be tough, but making time for work and play is important. Schedule time for yourself, make time for friends and family, and do not forget to take vacations! By following these tips, you will be on your way to finding the perfect balance between your personal and professional lives.
The Google October 2022 spam update that started to roll out on October 19, 2022, at around 11 am ET, is now complete less than 48 hours after it began. The update finished rolling out on October 21, 2022, at around 5 am ET.
The announcement. Google quietly updated the search updates page adding “Released the October 2022 spam update. This update is global and affects all languages. The rollout was complete as of October 21, 2022.“
The part added was bolded above and reads “The rollout was complete as of October 21, 2022.”
“While Google’s automated systems to detect search spam are constantly operating, we occasionally make notable improvements to how they work. When we do, we refer to this as a spam update and share when they happen on our list of Google Search ranking updates. For example, SpamBrain is our AI-based spam-prevention system. From time-to-time, we improve that system to make it better at spotting spam and to help ensure it catches new types of spam. Sites that see a change after a spam update should review our spam policies to ensure they are complying with those. Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all. Making changes may help a site improve if our automated systems learn over a period of months that the site complies with our spam policies.”
Previous updates. Before this, the most recent confirmed Google spam update was the November 2021 spam update. Google also released a two-part Spam Update – on June 23 and June 28 in 2021, as well as the July 2021 link spam update.
Why we care. If you notice large ranking or traffic changes from your organic Google search results, you may have been hit by this spam update. Spam updates target specific guideline violations. This update may have been more focused on content spam efforts. Check your rankings and Google organic traffic over the past week to see if you noticed any big changes to your positions.
They line up the RFP cattle call, or back-to-back meetings between a handful of agencies to contrast and compare.
However, almost zero agencies review clients in return.
Instead, they’re too eager, living hand to mouth, to take on all clients at all times as long as they have a pulse and a checkbook.
It makes sense. You need to keep the lights on and employees fed. But it almost always backfires at least a few times each year.
Client A is actually costing you money in the long run. Client B keeps asking for caviar on a sardines budget. And Client C is simply just an a-hole.
Counterintuitively, that’s why the best thing an agency can do is to routinely fire clients on a regular basis. Not once a year, but once a month or quarter.
Here’s why.
When to fire a client: Recognize you have a problem (profitability, notoriety and fit)
Just like any good 12-step program, start by recognizing you have a problem.
You should have never touched that one client with a 10-foot pole. You were a terrible fit for that other client last summer.
Thankfully, you can relax. This is totally normal.
Profitability
The first issue that sabotages client engagement is usually profitability (not contract value).
Either you:
Undercharged from the get-go, too eager to land the client that you failed to properly scope or understand the full specifications.
Or the project costs that worked when you started a ~year ago don’t line up with your agency’s current headcount, overhead, and profitability targets.
Fortunately, this issue is also pretty easy to fix. You can (and should) regularly:
Simply raise rates at regular intervals for each client. Not every month or quarter necessarily, but definitely every year.
Continue on a “discounted rate” only if they meet your payment terms, like paying for the quarter or annual contract upfront to help your cash flow. This is especially key on larger accounts with enterprise companies that seem to think you’re a bank that extends credit to fund their project resources for… infinity? While they pay slooooooooooowwwllyyy.
Institute a new “change order” policy to avoid scope creep. My dad always used to say “what you permit, you promote.” Drove me nuts at the time and still rings in my ears.
The minute you get backed into the “vendor” corner, simply fulfilling orders and being a pushover, you’re screwed.
This mismatch issue also brings to light a tertiary issue: “fit.”
Fit
Maybe you sold a service or project you’re actually unequipped to deliver.
Or maybe there’s just a personality difference between your firm’s people and the client’s point of contact.
Either way, healthy agency engagements are more marriage, less Tinder. “Fit” is as important as budget.
There’s usually a variety of reasons why “fit” gets distorted and the relationship blows up in your face. And depressingly, there’s almost nothing you can do to improve fit.
Leaving you with only one obvious option.
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5 simple steps to firing clients once and for all
Subscription businesses like SaaS measure things like “churn” to assess how well they’re doing in satisfying customers.
From a 30,000-foot level, it’s a measure of how many people sign up and then bounce (seemingly to find some other alternative).
Generally speaking, a SaaS business then wants its churn rate to be as low as humanly possible because that means its product is “stickier” and therefore its business is way more profitable.
Service businesses often try to measure similar “churn” metrics. However, they’re missing the obvious point.
As a completely different business model, there is such a thing as churn being “too low” when it comes to clients.
In other words, you actually want clients to regularly churn out, assuming:
They’re still happy with the service you delivered so they’ll provide a testimonial and referrals.
That you have a steady stream of eager prospects willing to engage you at a higher rate (which is a topic for another day).
You obviously don’t want large, well-paying, nice clients to churn that often.
But you absolutely want less profitable, obscure, mismatched, unfriendly clients to see the door on a regular basis.
Replacing one for the other almost instantly:
Frees up your biggest bottleneck – people! – to take on new accounts without constantly needing to hire and fire under-performers as your deal flow ebbs and well, flows.
Improves your profitability because it’s often easier to start new clients at a significantly higher rate than ask (read: force) old clients to pony up more dough for seemingly the same exact level of service.
Both of those two moves, together, actually result in giving you less work to do while making the same (or more) – ‘cause you and your team deserve vacations sometimes, too.
Last but not least, it allows you to ideally work with bigger brand names which provide an almost instant lift to the credibility of your agency and helps “pre-sell” other prospects who’ve been sitting on the fence for months (or years).
So it’s best to be blunt and polite. But also rip the bandaid off ASAP.
Here’s how to fire clients nicely.
1. Time client firings with natural project conclusions or times of year
For instance, if a major milestone is going to be complete by the end of this quarter, that would be a perfect target date to…
2. Give plenty of notice
Tell them at least a month in advance (maybe more) that it’s coming to help set expectations. This also gives you some time to…
3. Plan ahead
You can:
Provide them with some alternatives for you.
Be able to forecast new work you have coming through the door so you can easily transition your team from one account to the next.
If they want to try to continue working together, you can…
4. Significantly raise rates for future work
This kinda gives them a hint. Every client gets put out when you try to ask for more money. Especially a lot more money.
Now imagine you 2X or 5X or even 10X their next project cost if they want to continue working together. They’ll almost always get the hint and go seek out cheaper alternatives. This also assumes the split will be amicable.
Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. So here’s how to fire a client with a not-so-nice script…
5. Some client firings aren’t always that nice
Look: life ain’t a fairy tale. Sorry to be a spoiler.
As a service professional, you need to be kinda like a mercenary. You parachute in to get s#*t done. Then, you move on to wherever the next project takes you.
Some clients routinely “take the piss” by:
Paying you well after previously agreed upon dates.
Demanding things that were never in scope.
Blaming you for their own internal issues.
Talking down to your staff.
Just simply being a pain in the @$$ to deal with.
So with these people, you can be blunter and skip the foreplay of the last four points:
“Effective immediately, we’re canceling our agreement with you due to… (list the points in the preceding sentence). After [XYY] date you will no longer have access to [ABC] resources.”
And… that’s it.
No elaborate script or heartfelt breakup needed. Remember that you’re a Navy Seal, not an untrained boot who’s never seen combat.
You can and should explain your reasoning and thought process to nice clients that are sadly no longer a good fit for where your agency is trying to go. Help them find another good shepherd to lead their flock.
But…
You absolutely don’t need to apologize or explain anything to jerks. They’re on their own. Because they all most likely think you’re an idiot already, unable to possibly live and breathe the same airspace as their genius.
So stop putting up with their crap, sapping your team’s morale, and damaging your longer-term reputation.
Let them go hire and fire 10 other agencies before they realize that they, not you, were the problem all along.
Firing a client is inevitable
You aren’t a therapist or a shrink.
The best agencies are battle-hardened teams of trained, skilled specialists. You get hired to create deliverables, design websites, problem-solve, rank stuff, increase ROAS, and more.
But nowhere in your MSAs or SOWs does it say: fix every client’s problem, no matter what.
Because there are tons of client problems that you literally can’t do anything about, like:
Bad internal support or champions.
An undifferentiated service or product in a crowded space.
Having the wrong people leading the wrong projects.
Under-qualified employees or HIPPOS (highest paid person’s opinion) calling the shots.
Poor/nonexistent processes and workflows to coordinate complex projects and scale results.
Under-resourced teams with inappropriately-aggressive timelines.
And lots, lots more.
You can’t save everyone.
Help the good, but no-longer-a-good-fit clients land on their feet when transitioning them out of your agency.
But don’t be afraid to cut the jerks loose today and let them be someone else’s problem to deal with tomorrow.
