Manual actions are on the rise. More businesses are waking up to a dreaded notification from Google—and facing a painful recovery process.
When a manual penalty hits, the biggest decision isn’t just what to do—it’s who should do it. Should the existing SEO team try to fix what (potentially) they helped cause? Or is it time to bring in external experts who specialise in cleaning up link profiles and navigating reconsideration requests?
To answer this question, we spoke to 21 top SEO experts who’ve been on both sides of the penalty battlefield.
Collaboration or Clean Break?
The overwhelming verdict? Collaboration wins—but with caveats.
86% of our expert panel agreed that a hybrid approach offers the best shot at a fast, clean recovery. Internal teams bring access, background, and context; external consultants bring structure, objectivity, and ruthless focus.
But only 4% thought the internal team should go it alone. Why? Inexperience, defensiveness, and a tendency to obscure mistakes were recurring concerns. And 10% argued for a clean slate: hand the entire process to a third-party penalty specialist with full control.
What the Experts Said
“Honestly, best to have a third party call the shots. Internal teams are too close to the work—and too sensitive about it.”
— Fili Wiese, former Google Search Quality team member
“If there’s any maturity gap, collaboration fails. The agency who caused the issue won’t want to be told what to do. The client just wants someone to blame.”
— Barry Adams, The Tomorrow Lab
“An insider who cares can sometimes crack the problem faster. I once removed 30,000 links by hacking old accounts. No external would’ve done that.”
“It should be collaborative, but the internal team should own it and then pass to specialist for final clean up. I think you force yourself to get a feel for the relative health of your profile and can form an opinion that will help you scrutinise the work being done by 3rd parties.”
— Julia Logan a.k.a. IrishWonder
“It has to be a collaboration. The in-house team may know who placed the links and with whom. Whereas the external team would be emailing someone that gets hundreds of removal requests and ignores them. The in-house team are closer to the site and will have a better idea on whether there is sensitivity with the PR team etc As externals we are here as a labour force and support network and 9 times out of 10 it works. Always exceptions though.”
— Rishi Lakhani
The takeaway? Experience, objectivity, and data access matter. But so does context—and the ability to face hard truths about what went wrong.
When Collaboration Fails
Collaboration works if there’s transparency. But experts repeatedly warned of scenarios where internal teams try to rewrite history or avoid blame. That creates conflicting objectives: protecting reputations vs. getting the penalty lifted.
In such cases, specialists argued that speed, accountability, and success rates are highest when the internal team steps back and lets them lead.
Penalties Are Expensive
Every failed reconsideration request adds roughly a month to your recovery time. Factor in two weeks for a Google reply, plus another two for new analysis and cleanup—and that’s a full revenue month lost.
For larger businesses, this makes the case for expert help compelling. For smaller organisations, it’s a trade-off between cost and consequence.
So before you choose your penalty recovery path, ask:
Does your team know how to lift a penalty?
Can you trust them to own the issue honestly?
How complex is your link profile?
What is the daily cost of this penalty to your business?
Make the Call—But Make It Informed
There’s no one-size-fits-all. But if your organic traffic has tanked and you’re staring at a manual action, don’t default to the team who got you here. Bring in experience. Push for transparency. Get ruthless with the data.
Most importantly: act fast. Because penalties don’t just hurt rankings—they burn time, resources, and trust.
