By Shad Super in Questions —

What Types of Issues Typically Trigger a Manual Action in Google Search Console?

Summary

Manual actions in Google Search Console (GSC) are penalties applied by Google's human reviewers when a website violates the search engine's guidelines. These actions can significantly reduce a site's visibility in search results or remove it entirely. Understanding and addressing the causes of such issues is crucial for maintaining good standing in Google's search rankings.

Common Triggers for Manual Actions

Google targets artificial, deceptive, or manipulative links that affect search rankings. These include link schemes such as buying or selling links, excessive link exchanges, and using automated programs to create links. Learn more from [Unnatural Links, 2023].

This occurs when a website engages in linking out to other websites in manipulative ways, such as participating in link schemes or having excessive reciprocal links. Refer to [Google's Guidelines on Links, 2023].

3. Thin Content with Little or No Value

Sites with low-quality or shallow pages that do not provide substantial value to users can be penalized. This includes automatically generated content, doorway pages, scraped content, and affiliate pages with little added value. Google discusses this in detail on their [Thin Content Guidelines, 2023].

4. Cloaking and Sneaky Redirects

Cloaking involves showing different content or URLs to users and search engines. Sneaky redirects send users to a different page than the search engine sees. Both practices are against Google’s guidelines. More information is available on [Cloaking Guidelines, 2022].

5. Spammy Structured Markup

This refers to the use of structured markup in ways that violate Google’s guidelines, like marking up irrelevant or misleading content that does not match what is actually displayed. See the guidelines provided by Google on [Structured Data Guidelines, 2023].

6. User-Generated Spam

Spammy content or links generated by users, often found in comments or forums, can trigger manual actions. Website owners are responsible for controlling such spam. More on this can be found on [User-Generated Spam, 2023].

7. Hacked Site

If a website is compromised and displaying spammy or harmful content due to hacking, Google may apply a manual action to protect search users. Guidance on preventing and rectifying this is available at [Hacked Site Help, 2023].

8. Pure Spam

Sites with high levels of aggressive spam techniques, such as automatically generated gibberish, cloaking, scraped content, and other types of severe spam, can be targeted by manual actions. Google’s approach to pure spam is detailed on [Pure Spam Guidelines, 2023].

Examples of Manual Actions

  • Buying Links: Paying for backlinks to manipulate PageRank.
  • Auto-Generated Content: Using content generation tools to populate your site with meaningless text.
  • Cloaking: Displaying different content to search engines than to human visitors.
  • Hacked Content: Allowing a third party to inject harmful or deceptive content into the site.

How to Address Manual Actions

  1. Identify the issue using the notifications in Google Search Console.
  2. Correct the issues by removing bad links, cleaning up content, securing your site, etc.
  3. Submit a reconsideration request through Google Search Console, explaining the corrective actions taken.

References