Manual Actions report

 See if your site has any manual actions issued against it and view the site's manual action history.

If a site has a manual action, some or all of that site will not be shown in Google search results.

OPEN THE MANUAL ACTIONS REPORT

 

What is a manual action?

Google issues a manual action against a site when a human reviewer at Google has determined that pages on the site are not compliant with Google's spam policies. Most manual actions address attempts to manipulate our search index. Most issues reported here will result in pages or sites being ranked lower or omitted from search results without any visual indication to the user.

If your site is affected by a manual action, we will notify you in the Manual Actions report and in the Search Console message center.

Why do manual actions exist?

Ever since there have been search engines, there have been people dedicated to tricking their way to the top of the results page. This is bad for searchers because more relevant pages get buried under irrelevant results, and it's bad for legitimate websites because these sites become harder to find. For these reasons, we've been working since the earliest days of Google to fight spammers, helping people find the answers they're looking for, and helping legitimate websites get traffic from search.

Google is constantly working to improve search. We take a data-driven approach and employ analysts, researchers, and statisticians to evaluate search quality on a full-time basis. Changes to our algorithms undergo extensive quality evaluation before being released. More information about our algorithm.

Our algorithms are extremely good at detecting spam, and in most cases we automatically discover it and remove it from our search results. However, to protect the quality of our index, we're also willing to take manual action to remove spam from our search results.

Do I have any manual actions against my site?

You'll see a count of manual actions against your site at the top of the report. If your site has no manual actions, you'll see a green check mark and an appropriate message.

What pages are affected?

Expand the manual action description to see a list of patterns of affected pages. This can be a subset of your site, or the entire site. Not all of the pages matching the pattern are necessarily affected.

Example:

  • https://example.com/real-estate/* – some or all pages under the real-estate/ directory are affected.
  • Affects all pages – Manual actions with this description affect the entire site.

How do I fix the problem?

To fix a manual action on your site:

  1. Expand the manual action description panel on the report for more information.
  2. See which pages are affected.
  3. See the type and short description of the issue, and follow the "Learn more" link to see detailed information and steps to fix the issue. (You can find the detailed information for each action below on this page).
  4. Fix the issue on all affected pages. Fixing the issue on just some pages will not earn you a partial return to search results. If you have multiple manual actions on your site, read about and fix all of them.
  5. Be sure that Google can reach your pages; affected pages should not require a login, be behind a paywall, or be blocked by robots.txt or a noindex directive. You can test accessibility by using the URL Inspection tool.
  6. When all issues listed in the report are fixed in all pages, select Request Review in this report. In your reconsideration request, describe your fixes. 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.
  7. Reconsideration reviews can take some time (see below). You will be informed of progress by email. You will get a review confirmation message when you send your request, to inform you that the review is in progress; don't resubmit your request before you get a final decision on your outstanding request.

How long will my reconsideration review take?

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 to review your request. You will be informed by email when we receive your request, so you'll know it is active. You will also receive an email when the review is complete. Please don't resubmit your request before you get a decision on any outstanding requests.

List of manual actions

Here are the manual actions that can be applied by Google and how to fix them.

Google has detected that some of the markup on your pages may be using techniques that are outside our structured data guidelines, for example: marking up content that is invisible to users, marking up irrelevant or misleading content, or other manipulative behavior.

Here are some of the structured data issues that might apply to your site:

Title Description
Content on page differs from structured data JobPosting structured data found on pages that don't have job posting content. This is against our guidelines. Learn more
Can't submit application on job offer page Content on pages found to be different than structured data on the page. This is against our guidelines. Learn more
Structured data does not match content Content on pages found to be different than structured data on the page. This is against our guidelines. Learn more
Job application requires payment Pages with JobPosting structured data charge a fee to apply for the job. This is against our guidelines. Learn more
Job request found on job offer pages Pages with JobPosting structured data are seeking a job, not offering a job. This is against our guidelines. Learn more
Misleading job location Pages with JobPosting structured data include a misleading job location field. This is against our guidelines. Learn more
Job poster not hiring Pages with JobPosting structured data are collecting applications but not hiring. This is against our guidelines. Learn more
Structured data issues on list page Pages with a list of items need to have each item marked up individually. Aggregating data from multiple items into one structured data element is against our spam policies. Learn more
JobPosting structured data on listing page A list page should not include structured data for individual jobs. Learn more
JobPosting structured data on expired job JobPosting markup used on an expired job without the validThrough Property set in the past. Learn more
Content on page differs from structured data ClaimReview structured data found on pages that don't contain a claim review. This is against our guidelines. Learn more
ClaimReview lacks reference, or reference does not match verdict Pages with ClaimReview structured data do not include a supporting source or reference. This is against our guidelines. Learn more
Structured data found on hidden content Structured data found on elements that are not visible to the user. This is against our guidelines. Learn more
No mechanism for submitting a new review If a page includes a review, the page must also provide a way to provide a review or clearly show where the reviews come from. Learn more
Company marked as product A company has been labeled as a product in structured data. Learn more
Non-product labeled as product A non-product, or generic item, has been marked as a product. Learn more
Review written by the site or person providing the service Reviews must not be written or provided by the business or content provider unless they are customer, independent, and unpaid editorial reviews. Learn more
Event structured data is actually a promotion The visible text or structured data description is more concerned with promoting or selling the event than describing it. Learn more
Non-event labeled as an event A non-event item has been marked as an event. For example, a holiday or a coupon. Learn more
Non-recipe marked as a recipe A non-recipe item has been marked as a recipe. A recipe must be for a food item and include both ingredients and steps. Learn more
Structured data policy violation You have a structured data policy violation on one or more pages. Learn more
Incorrect Employer The employer in the hiringOrganization field should match the employer in the job posting. Learn more
Incomplete Job Description The description field is incomplete or unintelligible. Learn more

Recommended actions

  1. Make sure that the markup on your site meets Google's structured data guidelines if you would like it featured in Google search results. This might require updating existing markup or removing any markup that violates our guidelines.
  2. When you've made these changes, select Request Review on the Manual Actions report.
  3. After you've submitted a reconsideration request, be patient and watch for review status messages in your Search Console account — we'll let you know when we've reviewed your site. If we determine that your site is no longer in violation of our guidelines, we'll revoke the manual action.

What's the difference between the Manual Actions report and the Security Issues report?

There is some conceptual overlap between the Manual Actions report and the Security Issues report, so it is useful to know the difference between them:

The Manual Actions report lists manually detected issues with a page or site that are mostly attempts to manipulate our search index, but are not necessarily dangerous for users. Most issues reported here will result in pages or site being ranked lower or omitted from search results without any visual indication to the user.

The Security Issues report lists indications that your site was hacked, or behavior on your site that could potentially harm a visitor or their computer: for example, phishing attacks or installing malware or unwanted software on the user's computer. These pages can appear with a warning label in search results, or a browser can display an interstitial warning page when a user tries to visit them.

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