Abusive notification reviews

• We review a sample of your pages
• About domains and subdomains
• Review status
• The review cycle
  • Chrome enforcement status and review submissions
  • Review timing and Chrome enforcement if your site is in “Failing” status
  • Multiple “Failing” statuses in a one year period

We review a sample of your pages

Abusive notification reviews are not exhaustive—we do not look at every page of your site. Instead, we review a sample of pages and report on abusive notifications we find. (If your review status is “Failing,” you can see the violations we did find in the “What we found” column of the Report.) When you submit your site for review, we again look at a new sample of pages, which means we may find abusive notifications that we did not find on earlier reviews.

About domains and subdomains

The Abusive Notifications Report shows issues that affect any page up to and including your root domain. Note that submitting your site for review implements a review of the entire site domain, not just the subdomains for which you are registered. 

Learn more about your site’s domains and the Abusive Notifications Report. 

Review status

You'll see one of the following statuses at the top of the Report:

Not reviewed: We haven't yet reviewed the abusive notifications on your site. Abusive notifications use or reference browser notifications to mislead users, or promote malware or phishing, and should be removed from your site.

Passing: We reviewed your site and haven't detected a significant number of abusive notifications on your pages.

Failing: We reviewed your site and detected numerous abusive notifications. You should fix the issues as soon as possible and submit your site for another review. If your site remains in this status, Chrome will block browser notifications and notification requests.

Review pending: Your site has been submitted for a review. You’ll be unable to submit it for another review until we've completed this one. If your site was in "Failing" status, enforcement may be paused during this time period.

The first time your site is found to be in “Failing” status, we’ll send an email to registered site owners and users at least 30 calendar days prior to the start of Chrome enforcement, and you’ll have the opportunity to submit your site for another review.

The review cycle

You should fix your site's issues and submit it for review if:

• Your site’s review status is “Failing”; and
• You are a site owner or user as defined by the Google Search Console. 

Note that restricted users can view the Report, but cannot submit the site for a review.

Chrome enforcement status and review submissions

• When your site is found to be in “Failing” status, you can request a review twice without any delays. If your site remains in “Failing” status, you won’t be able to submit a 3rd or subsequent review for 30 days after you submit your previous review.
• Chrome enforcement starts on the date specified in the Abusive Notifications Report if your site remains in "Failing" status. Learn about enforcement for the Abusive Notifications Report

Review timing and Chrome enforcement if your site is in “Failing” status

• 1st review submission: Chrome enforcement is paused while the request is being processed. If the result of the review is "Failing," a 2nd review can be submitted immediately.
• 2nd review submission: Chrome enforcement is paused while the request is being processed. If the result of the review is "Failing," a 3rd submission cannot be made for 30 days, and Chrome enforcement commences upon the date specified in the Abusive Notifications Report.
• 3rd and subsequent review submissions: Cannot be made until 30 days have passed since the previous review submission, or until the site’s review status changes from “Failing” to “Passing.”

An example

The following example illustrates how Chrome enforcement occurs if multiple site reviews do not address issues on a site whose review status is “Failing.”

Site example.com is notified that it's in "Failing" status, and that enforcement will begin in 30 days. The following then occurs:

1. The webmaster immediately fixes or removes some of the abusive notifications and submits example.com for a review. This is the 1st review.
2. 7 days later the review results come back, and the site remains in "Failing" status. 23 days now remain before Chrome enforcement commences if the issues are not addressed.
3. 3 days later the webmaster removes or fixes additional abusive notifications, and submits the site for another review. This is the 2nd review. The site can now not be submitted for review for 30 days. If the site remains in "Failing" status, Chrome enforcement begins in 20 days.
4. 6 days later the review results come back, and the site remains in "Failing" status. The site cannot be submitted for another review for 24 days, but Chrome enforcement will begin in 14 days. Unfortunately, this means that Chrome enforcement will occur for 10 days before the site is eligible for another review submission.

Multiple “Failing” statuses in a one year period

Starting on June 19, 2020, when your site’s status changes to “Failing” for the 4th time within a one year (365 day) period, enforcement begins immediately, and you won't be able to submit your site for review for 30 days. 

Here’s how to figure out if your site is affected by multiple “Failing” statuses in a one year period:

1. At the time of your last “Failing” status notification, look back 365 days.
2. Add up the number of times your site changed to “Failing” status within the past 365 days, including the most recent.
3. Use the table below to see when enforcement begins, and when you’ll be able to request your next review.
    

The table below defines enforcement and review timing for multiple “Failing” statuses in a one year period.

Number of "Failing" statuses within a one year (365 day) period	Amount of time before enforcement begins	Able to request a site review
1	30 days	Immediately after notification of “Failing” status
2	7 days	Immediately after notification of “Failing” status
3	0 days (immediate enforcement)	24 hours after notification of “Failing” status
4 or more	0 days (immediate enforcement)	30 days after notification of “Failing” status

Note that the above timeframe is accounted for in the Enforcement status at the top of the Report.

When you do submit your site for a review, enforcement is paused until the review is complete.

An example

The following example illustrates the timeframe of Chrome enforcement when a site changes between “Passing” and “Failing” multiple times in a one year period.

Site example.com has moved from “Passing” to “Failing” review status twice in a one year period, and has just received a “Failing” status for the third time. 

The following then occurs:

1. Because this is the third “Failing” status in a one year period, enforcement begins immediately.
2. The webmaster fixes or removes the abusive notifications, but cannot submit the site for review for 24 hours after the notification of “Failing” status. During this time period, enforcement continues.
3. After 24 hours, the webmaster submits example.com for a review. 
4. The site’s status changes to “Review pending,” and enforcement is set to “Paused” while the site is reviewed.
5. 4 days after the submission, the review results come back, and the site’s status now changes to “Passing.”
6. Enforcement status is now set to “Off.” 

If the site were to fail again within the same one year (365 day) period, enforcement would begin immediately, and the webmaster would be unable to submit the site for review for 30 days after the notification of the “Failing” status.