Manual Actions in Search Console: Types and Reconsideration Requests
A manual action means a person at Google has decided that pages on your site break its spam policies, and those pages now rank lower or not at all. This guide explains the Manual actions report, each type Google lists, and how to fix the problem and ask for a review.
This guide is based on Google's Search Console Help article on the Manual actions report and Google Search Central's spam policies for Google web search. Quotes are Google's own words. If you have not used Search Console before, start with our Search Console basics guide.
- What a manual action is
- Checking the Manual actions report
- Partial or site-wide
- The manual actions Google lists
- News and Discover policy actions
- Fixing it: the rules that apply to every action
- Writing the reconsideration request
- How long the review takes
- Bought sites, site reputation and moving content
- FAQ
What a manual action is
Google says it issues a manual action "when a human reviewer at Google has determined that pages on the site are not compliant with Google's spam policies." Most of them address attempts to manipulate the search index, and most "will result in pages or sites being ranked lower or omitted from search results without any visual indication to the user."
That last part matters. Searchers see nothing, so the only clear signal is in Search Console. The spam policies page explains how this fits with the rest of Google's spam fighting: violations are detected "both through automated systems and, as needed, human review that can result in a manual action." In other words, a traffic drop without a manual action in the report is not a manual action; it may be an algorithmic change, and the report will not help with that.
Manual actions are also not security issues. A hacked site, malware or phishing shows up in a different report, with warnings that visitors can see. Our Search Console security issues guide covers that report and its review process.
Checking the Manual actions report
Open the Manual actions report for your property in Search Console. Google describes what you will see:
- A count of manual actions at the top of the report.
- If there are none, "a green check mark and an appropriate message."
- The site's manual action history, so you can see past actions too.
You do not have to keep checking by hand. Google says that if your site is affected, "we will notify you in the Manual actions report and in the Search Console message center." Make sure the people who look after the site have access to the property; our Search Console users and permissions guide explains the roles, and a full user is enough to request a review.
Partial or site-wide
Expand the action in the report to see "a list of patterns of affected pages." Google's examples:
https://example.com/real-estate/*: "some or all pages under the real-estate/ directory are affected."- "Affects all pages": the action covers the entire site.
Google adds: "Not all of the pages matching the pattern are necessarily affected." Treat the pattern as the area to clean up, not as a list of guilty URLs.
The manual actions Google lists
Each action in the report has a type and a "Learn more" link to the matching section of Google's help page. These are the web search types on that page, with what Google says each one means and the core of the fix it describes.
| Action | What Google says it means | Main fix Google describes |
|---|---|---|
| Site abused with third-party spam | A significant part of the site carries spam added by visitors or third parties, for example on forums, guestbooks, file uploaders or internal search pages. Only the spammy pages are affected. | Find and remove the spam, block obvious spam terms, mark user links with rel="ugc", keep monitoring. |
| User-generated spam | Spam submitted by visitors, typically on forum pages, guestbook pages or user profiles. | Remove it and put measures in place to prevent more. |
| Spammy free host | A significant fraction of the sites on a free hosting service are spammy, so Google may act on the whole service. | Remove spammy accounts and tell the hosting service's technical team. |
| Structured data issue | Markup outside Google's structured data guidelines, such as marking up content users cannot see or misleading content. | Update or remove the markup that breaks the guidelines. |
| Unnatural links to your site | Google has detected "a pattern of unnatural, artificial, deceptive, or manipulative links pointing to your site." | Export your links, get bad ones removed or nofollowed, disavow only what you could not get removed. |
| Unnatural links from your site | Paid or manipulative outbound links, such as excessive link exchanges. | Remove the links or stop them passing PageRank, for example with rel="nofollow". |
| Thin content with little or no added value | Low-quality or shallow pages, such as thin affiliate pages, scraped content, low-quality guest posts and doorways. | Improve the site so it provides significant value; report what was removed and added. |
| Cloaking and/or sneaky redirects | Showing Google different pages than users, or redirecting users somewhere other than what Google saw. | Compare what URL Inspection fetches with what a visitor sees; remove the code that serves different content or redirects conditionally. |
| Sneaky mobile redirects | Mobile users are redirected to content not available to search engine crawlers. | Check the Security issues report first, then third-party scripts and ad elements. |
| Major spam problems | The site appears to use "aggressive spam techniques such as scaled content abuse, cloaking, and/or other repeated or egregious violations." | Update the site so it no longer violates the policies. |
| Cloaked images | Images shown in Google results differ from those on the page, or are obscured. | Serve the same images to everyone. |
| Hidden text and/or keyword stuffing | Text hidden from visitors, or lists of repeated words. | Remove or re-style hidden text; remove stuffed words, including in title tags and alt text. |
| AMP content mismatch | The AMP version differs from its canonical page. Affected AMP pages are not shown; the canonical page is shown instead. | Make both versions essentially the same in topic and tasks. |
| Back button hijacking | The site interferes with browser history so visitors cannot go straight back to where they came from. | Disable or remove the code or imports responsible. |
For a structured data action, the report usually names a specific problem. Google's list includes "Structured data does not match content", "Structured data found on hidden content", "Review written by the site or person providing the service" and "Company marked as product", plus several job posting cases. Our structured data basics guide covers the rules behind them.
Two details from the link section are easy to miss. Google says that blindly adding every backlink to a disavow file "is not considered a good-faith effort", and that you should not disavow organic links. It also asks you to include "documentation about the links you've had removed and an explanation of any links you were unable to remove."
For hidden text, Google offers a quick test: select all the text on the page (Ctrl + A or Command + A) to reveal text set in the same colour as the background.
News and Discover policy actions
The same report can show actions for Google News and Discover content policies. Google lists dangerous content, several kinds of deceptive practices (coordinated deceptive practices, impersonation, misrepresentation of affiliation or location, and the good neighbor policy), harassing, hateful, medical, misleading, sexually explicit, terrorist, and violence and gore content, manipulated media, vulgar language and profanity, and transparency.
The transparency one is the most likely to reach an ordinary business that publishes news-style articles. Google says news sources "should provide clear dates and bylines, as well as information about authors, the publication, the publisher, company or network behind it, and contact information." Our guide to helpful content for business websites covers the same basics: who wrote it, who is behind the site, and how to reach them.
Fixing it: the rules that apply to every action
Google's general steps apply whatever the type:
- Expand the action, see which pages are affected, and read the "Learn more" section for that type.
- Fix the issue on all affected pages. Google is explicit: "Fixing the issue on just some pages will not earn you a partial return to search results."
- If there are several manual actions, read about and fix all of them.
- Make sure Google can reach the pages. They "should not require a login, be behind a paywall, or be blocked by robots.txt or a noindex directive." Check with the URL Inspection tool.
- Only when every issue is fixed on every page, select Request Review in the report.
Do not answer a manual action by hiding the pages and hoping. Google's spam policies list "Using existing or creating new subdomains, subdirectories, or sites with the intention of continuing to violate our policies" as policy circumvention, which can lead to broader action in Search, such as removing more sections of a site, and to losing eligibility for features like Top Stories and Discover.
Writing the reconsideration request
Google says a good request does three things:
- "Explains the exact quality issue on your site."
- "Describes the steps you've taken to fix the issue."
- "Documents the outcome of your efforts."
For several types (thin content, unnatural links from your site, major spam problems), Google also asks you to provide "examples of bad content that you removed and good content that you added." In practice that means keeping a record while you work: which URLs you removed or rewrote, which links you asked to be taken down and the replies you got, and which code you changed. A short, specific request with that evidence is easier to review than a long apology.
How long the review takes
Google's answer: "Most reconsideration reviews can take several days or weeks, although in some cases, such as link-related reconsideration requests, it may take longer than usual." You get an email when the request is received and another when the review is complete.
Google asks you not to resubmit "before you get a decision on any outstanding requests." Once Google determines the site no longer violates its policies, it revokes the manual action.
Bought sites, site reputation and moving content
You bought a site that already had an action
Google's advice: fix the issues in the report, "then let us know in your reconsideration request that you recently acquired the site and that it now no longer violates the policies." Our suggestion: if you are taking over a site, get access to its Search Console property and look at the manual action history before the handover is done. Our website ownership handover checklist covers getting that access.
Site reputation policy
This policy covers third-party content published on a host site "mainly because of that host site's already-established ranking signals". Google gives examples such as a medical site hosting a low-quality third-party "best casinos" page. Here the effect depends on where the searcher is. Outside the European Economic Area (EEA), the relevant pages "may be subject to a manual action". Within the EEA, they "may be categorized as separate from the main domain but won't be subject to the impact of manual action." Either way, Google says it notifies you in the Manual actions report and the message center, and every site can respond with a reconsideration request.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my site has a manual action?
Open the Manual actions report in Search Console. It shows a count at the top, or a green check mark if there are none. Google also sends a message to the Search Console message center.
Do searchers see that my site has a manual action?
Usually not. Google says most manual actions lead to lower rankings or removal "without any visual indication to the user". Visible warnings come from security issues, which are a separate report.
Can I fix only the worst pages?
No. Google says fixing just some pages "will not earn you a partial return to search results". Fix every affected page and every listed action before requesting a review.
How long does a reconsideration request take?
Google says several days or weeks, and longer in some cases such as link-related requests. You get an email when it starts and when it ends. Do not resubmit while a request is pending.
Is disavowing all backlinks enough for a links action?
No. Google asks for a good-faith effort to get bad links removed first, says not to disavow organic links, and says disavowing everything without trying removal might lead to rejection.
Need a hand cleaning up a site and documenting the fixes for Google? See our website maintenance and website development services and all our services, or email [email protected].