What is Google doing to provide support to webmasters?

When will there be official Google support for webmaster questions? I only ever receive automated responses after submitting reconsideration requests despite going to length to write in detail with regards to my issues and what I have done.
Phil, Bedfordshire, UK

Support and contact options for webmasters:

[TheSEOst]

It is really up to website owners to support each other, and help out. For someone coming fresh to SEO it can be daunting, but that is the reality.

[woutervergeer]

There are two ways to approach this. Thinking in ways to make this possible or in ways why it is impossible. It will all depend on whether Google sees added value in getting more feedback.

In reply:

1) I don't think engineers will be the ones handling the communications, it will be support staff. By the time engineers get involved Google got valuable feedback to implement.

2) I personally don't agree that providing manual support equals selling results. It is about solving issues.

[ChristopherBurdick]

The biggest problem is when your site is dinged not manually, but with the algorithm. You have no way of knowing what's wrong, no way of submitting a reconsideration request or even if you should, and very little help from the webmaster forums.

If there was a section in Webmaster Tools that could (even vaguely) tell you what's going on in the SERPs, that would help out tremendously, especially for those of us who run legit sites and got dinged for who-knows-why.

[electrosoundz]

Yes I would definitely pay for that. The goal is better search results like you said.
Except for Adwords, which has excellent support, all the other services (Adsense and Webmaster Tools) lack the "human touch". I preffered if i spoke to someone who knows what my problem is than look through hundreds of help pages and forums with people that only have theories.

[joshbarnett]

Go through your site and make sure that you don't have any duplicate content. If you do, don't delete the duplicate pages - just use 302s or canonicals to forward them to the original page. Once you've done that, just resubmit your sitemap and wait - the algorithm will refresh, and Google will forgive you for packing on content in such a short amount of time.

[AbdeelMarketing]

It's still far better than what you get from AdSense. They shut you down, with no explanation. Then, when you notify them that you have done nothing to violate their rules, but another webmaster who runs a site with your ads may have, and that you would be happy to remove those, you are told flatly that they cannot help you. What a load of crap!

[KalElsehsah]

Thanks Matt for clarification. I wonder if there will be a paid support not for escalation but to enhance google services. Btw, my son Adam Elsehsah always watching your videos with me and he asked me to say hello. Adam is 8 years old.

[OldeFarquer]

Matt, why has Google not designed a way to create negative keywords for search results? The last time the question was asked, the comment was "Who would want less traffic?" Well, me... so my bounce rate isn't so high and so people don't find us rather than what they're really looking for. It's been an important feature in Adwords for years. Why not search?

[MrTVTL]

I get the sentiment here, but it's not a particularly good idea for two reasons:

1) At $10 a month, Google probably loses money offering this. You have to figure their engineers are in the six digit salaries somewhere, which means that one email a month puts them at a loss. They'd probably have to go MS and do it per incident along the lines of $200/hour, 2 hour minimum.

2) If Google ever did this, they're effectively selling results. Pay more = better results.

[woutervergeer]

Hi Matt, how about if Google offered a paid version of the webmaster tools service. Just like you had with Google Apps, a free version without email support and a paid one with some extras, including email support. If the amount a month is low (e.g. less than $10 per domain), I'm sure that many webmasters would be interested. As a result the webmasters themselves will pay for it and it won't require other resources. And you can learn from the extra communication to improve Google even more.

[spookseo]

Google has never claimed to provide any accountability to webmasters. It is really up to website owners to support each other, and help out. For someone coming fresh to SEO it can be daunting, but that is the reality.

[GauravAgarwal]

YES VERY TRUE!!!, i faced the same issue with adwords, they slapped my account never gave me a reason, and on repeated contact they told me to create new LOL ( as they cannot help with the old one )

[cliffordshakun]

Matt is great how about more videos! please please they are great info....

[rustycompasstravel]

So why not charge webmasters a fee to receive some service? Then the service can cover its cost, be more accountable and ultimately create better search outcomes as well.

[JohnStirzaker]

Hi Matt would it not make sense to detail exactly what the issue is with the effected website so that websmasters can focus their efforts on fixing the actual issues? Just some level of guidance would be great (especially with algorithmic penalties) we could all go about making our sites better by fixing what you're telling us we are doing wrong.

[RankYa]

Perhaps that's understandable in that Google can't reply to every single email from webmasters. But why not make it clear as to why Google takes such actions (as in pin point which of the algo's have triggered the action?) instead of making webmasters read through the guidelines, because most webmasters do not fully have the time to watch countless hours of videos (or which particular video can help them understand the dilemma their website is facing)

[HansCastroJimenez]

A todos nos gustaría un trato "tú a tú" con el soporte de Google. ¿Abrir un servicio técnico sería tan inviable? Generalmente en SEO todo va bastante lento, y a veces necesitamos respuestas rápidas.

[KrisHarrisSEO]

Premium paid support package maybe helpful as you like making lots of money.... Digging the T-shirt too

[bodyguardrj]

My website changed from subdomains to folders. And since the main domain got thousands of new pages, Google removed me from all search results (but still indexed). I have no away to tell Google that was only a URL structure change and I can't send a reconsideration request because I don't have manual penalty. I'm in limbo :(

[BenoitQuimper]

Have you tried redirecting the old URLs (301 redirects) and sending a sitemap?