A section of the site such as vouchers, betting tips, loans or product reviews is produced and run by a third-party partner under a commercial or white-label deal
Manual action recovery
Site Reputation Abuse - Manual Action Recovery
Google has taken action on a section of your site where third-party content is trading on your domain's reputation, so we work out exactly what is caught, which fix protects the most revenue and take the reconsideration request through for you.
Free recovery brief · Written diagnostic · Fixed quote before booking
Is this the message in your Search Console?
Google’s Manual Actions report ↗Search Console / Report example
Manual actions
Site reputation policy (widely known as site reputation abuse or parasite SEO)
WHAT IS A SITE REPUTATION ABUSE MANUAL ACTION?
Site reputation abuse is Google's name for publishing third-party content on an established site in order to take advantage of that site's ranking signals, which the SEO industry has called parasite SEO for years. The classic examples are a news publisher hosting a coupon section run by an outside company, or a trusted site carrying product reviews or casino content written by a third party, and the manual action appears in Search Console under the label Site reputation policy.
WHAT DOES IT DO TO YOUR SITE?
The action applies to the pages with the third-party content on them and not to the rest of the site, so your own editorial content carries on as normal while the affected section drops out of the results. Google does say that being repeatedly inconsistent with the policy may lead to further manual actions or affect the site's overall ranking, and it also states that the impact of this manual action doesn't apply to search results shown to users in the European Economic Area.
- Scope
- Third-party publishing sections
- Typical clean-up time
- Estimated after diagnosis
- Review time
- Several days or weeks
WHY DID GOOGLE ISSUE IT?
Sponsored or partner content is published on the main domain and reads as though it's the site's own editorial
Freelancers or an outside agency are producing content at volume on topics that have little to do with what the site is known for
A subdomain or subfolder has effectively been rented out to another business
The content was moved after an earlier warning into a different folder or subdomain, which Google may treat as an attempt to circumvent the policy
HOW DO WE FIX IT?
We map the URL patterns Google listed in the notice against your site structure, your commercial agreements and who actually produces each section
Publishing inventory
Evidence log · Site reputation abuse
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification dateWe set out your options with the revenue impact of each, i.e. removing the content, noindexing it, moving it to a new domain or bringing it in-house as first-party content
Editorial relationship review
Evidence log · Site reputation abuse
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification dateWe implement the route you choose, and where content is moved to a new domain we make sure links from the old site are nofollowed and that the old URLs are NOT redirected, because Google warns that redirecting may put you back in breach
Affected content decisions
Evidence log · Site reputation abuse
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification dateWe check the rest of the site for other sections that would fall under the same policy so you aren't back here in six months
Live verification
Evidence log · Site reputation abuse
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification dateWe write and submit the reconsideration request
Submission record
Evidence log · Site reputation abuse
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification date
WHAT GOES INTO THE RECONSIDERATION REQUEST?
The request explains what the third-party arrangement was, which option was taken and why, and shows the reviewer the current state of the affected URLs. Where the content has been brought in-house we describe the new editorial process and who is responsible for it, because the reviewer needs to be satisfied that the content is now first-party in practice and not only on paper.
Reconsideration request service →Questions about recovery
Can I just move the content to a subdomain?
Google specifically cautions against this, because moving the content to a subdomain or another subdirectory of the same site may be viewed as an attempt to circumvent the policy and could lead to broader action.
Do I have to end the partnership?
Not always, since noindexing the section keeps it available to your readers and your partner while taking it out of search, and whether that works commercially depends on how much of the deal's value came from organic traffic.
How long does recovery take?
Your diagnostic will include a clean-up estimate, and Google’s review usually takes several days or weeks, with link reviews sometimes taking longer.
Thin content 
Unnatural links from your site 
News and Discover policy violations