Marketing 3 min read

Google Explains How to Deal With Manual Actions

Twinsterphoto / Shutterstock.com

Twinsterphoto / Shutterstock.com

Google‘s webmaster and trend analyst, John Mueller, explains how to handle manual actions and reconsideration requests.

Sometimes, Google’s webspam team could manually review your website before issuing Google penalties. In such a case, the penalties are referred to as manual action, a reference to the manual review.

The effect of manual action varies. It could be a partial removal of website content from search results – or worse, the deindexing of an entire website.

Spam is one reason that Google may issue a manual action. So, how do you handle it?

Dealing With Manual Actions via Search Console

A notification on the Search Console will inform you when you receive a manual action. Aside from indicating the reason for the manual action, the information will also contain the steps to recover.

After taking the required steps, a site owner must send a reconsideration request via the Search Console. Then, a member of the webspam team would review and reconsider the manual action.

Unfortunately, the process is not always as simple as it sounds.

Google can continue to see your website as spam, despite sending a reconsideration request on Search Console. That brings us to the recent episode of Ask Google Webmaster video series.

A site owner asked Mueller for advice on how to deal with manual actions and reconsideration requests.

The question reads:

“Hi John, my domain was detected as spam. I have already fixed it and reported it via Search Console but my site is still detected as spam. What should I do?”

Here is Mueller’s response.

Mueller’s Advice on Handling Manual Actions

If the manual action remains despite best efforts to fix it, Mueller strongly recommends starting a thread in the official Google Webmasters Help forum.

According to Mueller, you’ll find other individuals that have experienced tons of issues that resulted in webspam manual actions. And inputs from these site owners could help improve or fix your website.

Mueller explained:

“When you go there, make sure to include all of the information you have about your website. Explain the original issue and what you’ve done since then to clean up.”

The Google trends analyst also recommends being as honest as possible. Although the input may be difficult to take in, Mueller points out that external opinions from other people could make all the difference.

After you’ve made all the necessary changes, consider submitting another reconsideration request.

Read More: Mueller Provides Insight Into Link Reconsideration Requests

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