Manual Action (Penalty)

A manual action penalty is a penalty applied by a human reviewer at a search engine when a website is found to violate quality guidelines. Unlike algorithmic penalties which are automated, a manual action happens after a direct review of a site.

Search engines like Google issue manual actions when they detect practices intended to manipulate search rankings rather than provide value to users.

When a manual action is applied, a website may lose rankings, experience traffic drops, or be partially or fully removed from search results.

How Manual Actions Work

Manual actions are issued after a human reviewer confirms guideline violations. Once applied, the affected pages or entire website are flagged.

Website owners are notified through Google Search Console where details about the issue and affected pages are provided.

The penalty remains in place until the issue is fixed and a successful reconsideration request is approved.

Common Reasons for Manual Action Penalties

Manual actions are usually caused by spammy or deceptive SEO practices including:

• Unnatural backlinks or link schemes
• Thin or low value content
• Keyword stuffing
• Cloaking or sneaky redirects
• User generated spam
• Hidden text or links
• Spammy structured data

These actions violate search engine guidelines and harm search result quality.

Types of Manual Actions

Manual actions can affect different parts of a website:

• Site wide manual actions that impact the entire domain
• Partial manual actions that affect specific pages or sections
• Link related actions targeting unnatural inbound or outbound links
• Content related actions targeting thin or misleading content

Understanding the type of manual action helps determine the correct recovery steps.

How Manual Actions Impact SEO

A manual action penalty can significantly affect SEO by:

• Causing sudden ranking drops
• Reducing organic traffic
• Removing pages from search results
• Preventing new pages from ranking
• Damaging long term site trust

The impact depends on the severity and scope of the penalty.

How to Fix a Manual Action Penalty

Recovering from a manual action requires careful cleanup and transparency:

• Identify the exact issue in Search Console
• Remove or fix all guideline violations
• Clean up unnatural backlinks if required
• Improve content quality and relevance
• Document all actions taken
• Submit a detailed reconsideration request

Only honest and complete fixes lead to penalty removal.

Reconsideration Requests Explained

A reconsideration request is a message sent to the search engine explaining how violations were fixed. It should include:

• A clear explanation of the issue
• Specific actions taken to resolve it
• Proof of cleanup where applicable
• A commitment to follow guidelines moving forward

Requests may take days or weeks to review.

Manual Action vs Algorithmic Penalty

Manual actions differ from algorithmic penalties in key ways:

• Manual actions are applied by human reviewers
• Algorithmic penalties happen automatically
• Manual actions are reported in Search Console
• Algorithmic penalties are not directly reported
• Manual actions require reconsideration requests

Both can harm rankings but recovery processes differ.

How to Prevent Manual Action Penalties

Prevention focuses on long term quality and compliance:

• Follow search engine webmaster guidelines
• Avoid paid or manipulative link building
• Publish original helpful content
• Moderate user generated content
• Monitor backlinks regularly
• Fix SEO issues early

Ethical SEO practices reduce penalty risk.

FAQs About Manual Action Penalties