The explanation for this is actually quite straightforward. Google fights spam in 40 different languages and we absolutely take reconsideration requests in many different languages, including Italian, French, German, etc. We've also improved our reconsideration requests in the last few months to tell webmasters whether the requests have been granted or whether the website still has issues in our opinion.
People have told us that they'd like to have additional feedback though--not just a "yes/no" type of answer. So we've been experimenting with giving more in-depth answers. I discussed the experiment in this video we published a couple weeks ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rsWc78dits#t=1m36s (watch from 1:36 to 1:56 or so).
Now you know enough to understand what happened in this case. This person, after violating our quality guidelines, had done multiple reconsideration requests. His English-language reconsideration request was selected to get a more personalized response, but then when the Googler started to investigate the site, the actual site was in Italian. That's what triggered the "this language is not supported" message because the person handling the case was expecting an English-language site based on the English-language reconsideration request.
What you need to know:
- we absolutely do handle reconsideration requests in lots of different languages, including Italian.
- we've also been experimenting with giving more in-depth answers to webmasters. The mismatch between the language of the reconsideration request and the language of the website caused this message to get sent, but
- we'll still send this site more in-depth advice. Based on the website's spammy linkbuilding techniques mentioned in the blog post, it sounds like they could use the extra guidance anyway.
Thanks for the answer, and thanks for clarifying he situation and the reason of the answers. Maybe adding a line saying: "You did a request for an italian site, so we kindly ask you to refer to the Italian reconsideration request procedure in Italian".
Remember he is not a professional SEO, and these kind of "subtleties" maybe are not understood so fast, especially when you see your previous reconsiderations not answered.
Said that, as I was saying in the post, my friend is aware that the site have problems and I know he is working on solving them. So, let's hope he will adjust those issues in order to have his site graced, and that the strategy based on content marketing will be implemented.
People have told us that they'd like to have additional feedback though--not just a "yes/no" type of answer. So we've been experimenting with giving more in-depth answers. I discussed the experiment in this video we published a couple weeks ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rsWc78dits#t=1m36s (watch from 1:36 to 1:56 or so).
Now you know enough to understand what happened in this case. This person, after violating our quality guidelines, had done multiple reconsideration requests. His English-language reconsideration request was selected to get a more personalized response, but then when the Googler started to investigate the site, the actual site was in Italian. That's what triggered the "this language is not supported" message because the person handling the case was expecting an English-language site based on the English-language reconsideration request.
What you need to know:
- we absolutely do handle reconsideration requests in lots of different languages, including Italian.
- we've also been experimenting with giving more in-depth answers to webmasters. The mismatch between the language of the reconsideration request and the language of the website caused this message to get sent, but
- we'll still send this site more in-depth advice. Based on the website's spammy linkbuilding techniques mentioned in the blog post, it sounds like they could use the extra guidance anyway.