Google: Go As Far Back As Possible To Remove Paid Links

Of late, Google’s John Mueller replied in a Google Webmaster Help thread to a webmaster who got one of those unnatural links warnings. Few of the points that he made are:

Do Not Wait Out Penalties
Google has told not to wait out penalties as they can take a long period to be upturned. As an alternative, submit a reconsideration request so as to accelerate it. John said, “- If you’re serious about your site’s standing in our search results, then I’d strongly advise not to try to wait the penalty out. These are generally not issues that expire after a few days, they can affect your site’s standing for quite some time.”

Remove All Paid Links Going Back As Far As You Paid Links
It has been said by Google that if you have been reimbursing for links for two years, return to two years and eliminate those paid links. You can go back to any time period and do the same, be it four years, five years, or so. Apparently, Google wishes for a thoughtful effort to do away with all the paid links you assimilated over the years.
John elucidated, “Regarding the age of the unnatural links, I’d work to have them all removed, regardless of the age. For instance, in the general case where a site has been buying links for 2 years, it would be a good idea to go back that far.”

Getting A Notification Now Doesn’t Mean It Is A New Penalty
Google treaded up their notifications, hence if you receive a notification at present, it doesn’t mean it is a new penalty. These notifications are basically for old penalties. John explicated, “while we have just recently started sending out these messages, they may apply to issues that were already known (and affecting your site’s standing in our search results) for a while.”