Does Google use a set standard for manually removing webspam?

This video talks about the methods employed by Google in assuring that the webspam team is consistent on their work and follows the standards. It includes trainings, programs, and other skill improvement activities. Moreover, Matt Cutts briefly discussed the things that are considered as spam by the webspam team who processes such manually.

The video highlights the following points:

1. Google does not mark sites as spam by merely prejudice or when a site is being critical of the company. It was emphasized that Google is not a tyrant which judges sites arbitrarily or without the due process.
2. There are certain standards which Google abide in the removal of webspam. Standards in manually removing web spam include cloaking, JavaScript redirects, thin affiliate sites, and all kind of spamming tricks.
3. Google did a good job on responding to very simple, gibberish, very clear cut cases of spamming on the web.
4. Manual webspam team members of Google undergo training to assure the consistency of their work. They also have other programs and activities to improve the quality of work and their efficiency. An example of which is shadowing which two persons observe the actions of each other and later brainstorm with themselves, give advices, opinions, etc.
5. Moreover, members of the webspam team are subject to inspection and examination until they are given more autonomy and trust by the team. This happens when a member submits the work to another person of superior experience and skill and evaluate whether or not the job is done well.
6. Spammers develop new techniques overtime which sometimes stagger the members of the webspam team. Fortunately, most of the spamming cases around the web are straightforward or those that are easier to discover and resolve.
7. Although the Google webspam team has an established guideline which dictates what are rights and wrongs, they do not limit themselves thereby because there are some tricks made by spammers which do not necessarily violate any guidelines but are contrary to the spirit of the guidelines. In these cases Google take actions. Meanwhile, they also consider the record of the spammer in the past.

In order to achieve better ranking, you should:

1. Avoid spam activities on your site or anything that violates the spirit and the guidelines established by Google. It may be a good thing to get higher ranks at first but the consequences include sanctions by Google which later on lead to lower rankings.
2. Submit a compelling reconsideration request to Google to explain the event and to assure that it will not happen again. This will help you rank again in the search results.

If you are building an SEO website using wordpress platform, you also always install plugins that stop spammer.