A manual action means a Google reviewer found that pages on your site do not follow Google’s spam policies. Affected pages or the whole site may be demoted or removed.
How to check
Search Console → Security & Manual actions → Manual actions. It lists issues and affected pages.
Common types
- Unnatural links to or from your site.
- Thin content with little or no added value.
- Pure spam or scaled content abuse.
- Keyword stuffing and hidden text.
- Structured data issues.
- User-generated spam.
How to recover
- Read the description and Google’s documentation for that issue.
- Fix all problems across the site, not just examples.
- Document what you did.
- Submit a reconsideration request explaining fixes clearly.
- Wait for review; it can take weeks.
Cleanup tools
Remove stuffed text (check with our keyword density checker), remove or redirect thin pages with our redirect generator, and handle links. Read toxic links and disavow.
Read black-hat SEO risks.
Want the full picture? This article is part of SEO: the complete guide, our in-depth guide with everything in one place.
