In an online forum, a webmaster asked why it was so difficult to get the penalty of a particular client lifted:
“My client is concerned that perhaps they are being penalized for something other than unnatural links. They have sent out a large number of emails and many have likely been reported as spam. The company is a legitimate loan broker, but they do have several sites operating under different business names.
I could see that that could potentially cause issues with Google, but to me, it seems clear that the penalty is for unnatural links as there are no other actions showing in the manual spam actions viewer.”
It turned out that the client did not give all the details to the SEO company that tried to lift the penalty:
@Marie_Haynes so I worry that you haven't truly gotten through to your client, who shows signs of long-standing, mass, deliberate spam 
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) March 7, 2014
During the discussion, Matt Cutts said that the company should “have a clear-eyed view of the hole they dug for themselves over the years.” He also said that it would be quite difficult to lift the penalty:
@Marie_Haynes it's possible (as John Mueller points out), but it could be quite difficult to undo all the spam across the years.
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) March 7, 2014Spamming is very risky
You shouldn’t use spam methods to promote your website if you plan to remain in business for a longer time. If you want to get high rankings that last, use white-hat SEO methods that play by the rules. White-hat SEO methods are safe methods that are good for webmasters, search engines and searchers.
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