View manual webspam actions in Webmaster Tools

Thursday, August 08, 2013

We strive to
keep spam out
of our users’ search results. This includes both improving our webspam algorithms as well as
taking manual action for violations of our
quality guidelines.
Many webmasters want to see if their sites are affected by a manual webspam action, so today we’re
introducing a new feature that should help. The manual action viewer in Webmaster Tools shows
information about actions taken by the manual webspam team that directly affect that site’s
ranking in Google’s web search results. To try it out, go to
Webmaster Tools
and click on the “Manual Actions” link under “Search Traffic.”

You’ll probably see a message that says, “No manual webspam actions found.” A recent analysis of
our index showed that well under 2% of domains we’ve seen are manually removed for webspam. If you
see this message, then your site doesn’t have a manual removal or direct demotion for webspam
reasons.

If your site is in the very small fraction that do have a manual spam action, chances are we’ve
already notified you
in Webmaster Tools. We’ll keep sending those notifications, but now you can also do a live check
against our internal webspam systems. Here’s what it would look like if Google had taken manual
action on a specific section of a site for “User-generated spam”:

In this hypothetical example, there isn’t a site-wide match, but there is a “partial match.” A
partial match means the action applies only to a specific section of a site. In this case, the
webmaster has a problem with other people leaving spam on mattcutts.com/forum/. By fixing this
common issue, the webmaster can not only help restore his forum’s rankings on Google, but also
improve the experience for his users. Clicking the “Learn more” link will offer new resources for
troubleshooting.

Once you’ve corrected any violations of Google’s
quality guidelines, the next
step is to
request reconsideration.
With this new feature, you’ll find a simpler and more streamlined reconsideration request process.
Now, when you visit the reconsideration request page, you’ll be able to check your site for manual
actions, and then request reconsideration only if there’s a manual action applied to your site. If
you do have a webspam issue to address, you can do so directly from the Manual Actions page by
clicking “Request a review.”

The manual action viewer delivers on a popular feature request. We hope it reassures the vast
majority of webmasters who have nothing to worry about. For the small number of people who have
real webspam issues to address, we hope this new information helps speed up the troubleshooting.
If you have questions, come find us in the
Webmaster Help Forum
or stop by our
Office Hours.

Posted by
Matt Cutts, Distinguished Engineer