SEO

SEO Glossary: Manual Action

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SEO Glossary: Manual Action
SEO Glossary: Manual Action

Imagine your website suddenly drops in search rankings or disappears from search results altogether. This can be due to a manual action imposed by Google.

What is a manual action?

A manual action is a penalty applied by a human reviewer at Google when they determine that pages on a site violate Google’s spam policies. These violations can include manipulative link practices, thin content, cloaking, and other forms of webspam.

Why are manual actions important?

  1. Impact on visibility: Manual actions can drastically reduce your site’s visibility in search results, leading to a significant loss of traffic.
  2. SEO health: Addressing manual actions is crucial for maintaining the overall health and integrity of your website’s SEO.

Common reasons for manual actions

  • Unnatural links: Links that are intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results.
  • Thin content: Pages with little or no added value, often copied from other sites.
  • Cloaking and sneaky redirects: Showing different content to users than to Google.

How to address a manual action

  1. Identify the issue: Use Google Search Console to identify the specific reasons for the manual action.
  2. Fix the problem: Remove or disavow unnatural links, improve or remove thin content, and ensure no cloaking or sneaky redirects.
  3. Request review: After making the necessary changes, request a reconsideration from Google through Search Console.

By understanding and addressing manual actions promptly, you can recover your site’s rankings and maintain compliance with Google’s guidelines.

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seoplus+ Team

The award-winning seoplus+ expert team includes experienced and driven digital marketing specialists and business advisors. Since 2012, seoplus+ has provided demand generation and business growth services to companies ranging from SMBs to multinational enterprises. seoplus+ is best regarded for expertise with multi-location brands. Our team's rich and diverse backgrounds range from SEO, PPC, social media, content creation, digital PR, UX design, web development, and ecommerce, to customer success, lead generation, and growth strategy. seoplus+ is also an SEMrush Agency Partner, Google Premier Partner, and Shopify Partner.

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