Google says it will try to get more examples of so-called “bad links” in its messages to webmasters who have submitted reconsideration requests after being hit with webspam penalties.

In a Webmaster Help video today, Google’s Matt Cutts responded to the submitted question:

Client got unnatural links warning in Sept’ 12 without any example links, 90% links removed, asked for examples in every RR but no reply, shouldnt it be better to have live/cached “list” of bad links or penalties in GWT? Think about genuine businesses.

“That’s fair feedback. We appreciate that,” says Cutts. “We’re working on becoming more transparent, and giving more examples with messages as we can. I wouldn’t try to say, ‘Hey, give me examples in a reconsideration request,’ because a reconsideration request – we’ll read what you say, but we can really only give a small number of replies – basically ‘Yes, the reconsideration request has been granted,’ or ‘No, you still have work to do.’ There’s a very thin middle ground, which is, ‘Your request has been processed.’ That usually only applies if you have multiple webspam actions, and maybe one has been cleared, but you might have other ones left. But typically you’ll get a yes or no back.”

He continues, “But there’s no field in that request to say – a live amount of text – to just say, ‘Okay, here’s some more examples. But we will work on trying to get more examples in the messages as they go out or some way where you…for example, it would be great if you could just log into Webmaster Tools and see some examples there.”

“What I would say is that if you have gotten that message, feel free to stop by the Webmaster Forum, and see if you can ask for any examples, and if there’s any Googlers hanging out on the forum, maybe we can check the specific spam incident, and see whether we might be able to post or provide an example of links within that thread,” Cutts concludes. “But we’ll keep working on trying to improve things and making them more transparent.”

How would you like to see Google approach this issue?