How to recover from a Google penalty

A manual action is a penalty applied after Google decides a site breaks its spam policies. Google says it will notify you in the Manual actions report and in the Search Console message center.

Open Search Console, go to Security and Manual Actions, then Manual actions.

• If an action is listed, you have a manual penalty, and there is a defined way out.
• If the report is clear, your drop has another cause, such as an algorithmic update, a technical issue or a seasonal dip.

Google's process, from its Manual actions report help page:

1. Expand the description to see the type of issue and the patterns of affected pages. It may cover part of the site or all of it, and not every page matching a pattern is necessarily affected.
2. Read the "Learn more" link for that action type. Google lists each manual action and how to fix it.
3. Fix the issue on every affected page, not a sample.
4. Request review. In the reconsideration request, describe the steps you took.

Google says most reconsideration reviews can take several days or weeks, and link-related requests may take longer. You are told by email when the review is done.

Our read on the most common types for small business sites:

• Unnatural links: remove paid or manipulative links where you can, and document the cleanup in your request.
• Thin content with little or no added value: improve or remove pages that exist only to rank.
• User-generated spam: clean up comments and forums, and add moderation.
• Structured data issues: remove markup that misrepresents the page. Google notes this kind of action affects rich result eligibility, not web search ranking.

If you bought a site that already had a penalty, Google says to fix the issues and mention in your reconsideration request that you recently acquired the site.

Google's guide to debugging drops in Search traffic lists the usual causes: algorithmic updates, technical issues, security issues, spam issues, seasonality and changing interests. Google also detects spam through automated systems, so a drop can follow a policy violation even without a manual action.

For an algorithmic drop there is no review to request. Google's advice for a large drop across many terms is to self-assess the whole site for content that is helpful, reliable and people-first, and it warns that recovery may take months.

• Vet every SEO vendor's link sources. Paid links that pass ranking credit break Google's link spam policy.
• Publish at a pace you can check. Many pages made mainly to rank fall under scaled content abuse.
• Watch Search Console monthly, including the Security Issues report.

How long does recovery take? For a manual action, the review takes days or weeks after you fix and submit. For algorithmic drops, Google says improvements can take months to be recognized.

Does a manual action cover the whole site? Not always. Google says it can apply to a subset of pages or the entire site, and the report shows the affected URL patterns.

Will my rankings return to where they were? Google offers no guarantee. Rankings that depended on the penalized tactic may not come back.

Check the Manual actions report first. If there is an action, fix every affected page and file a clear reconsideration request. If not, diagnose the drop with Google's own checklist before changing anything.