Google has 12 new types of manual action penalties that involve violations of Google News and Google Discover policies.
This marks the first time that a site can receive a manual penalty for violations of News and Discover policies. Previously, manual actions were limited to Google Search violations.
This is not to say that Google has not applied its policies around News and Discover. Yes, but so far the application has been automated.
A manual penalty, as opposed to an automated penalty, is issued by a human reviewer at Google. The penalty is applied after the reviewer determines that the site does not comply with Google guidelines.
Traditionally, a manual penalty results in pages or sites that rank lower in Google Search. It is unclear what the repercussions will be when you are hit with a manual penalty for violating Google News and Google Discover policies.
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The Google help page does not say whether the pages will be demoted / removed only Discover and News, or whether the penalty will extend to Google Search as well.
Regardless, it is in the interest of every website owner to avoid these penalties. Manual actions are the most serious of all Google penalties and require a lot of effort to recover.
That said, let’s take a look at the 12 new manual action penalties specific to Google News and Discover.
Manual actions for Google News and Google Discover
Some of the new Google manual penalties are specific to News, some are specific to Discover and some involve News and To discover.
Google News penalties
The only manual penalty specific to Google News is a violation of the transparency policy.
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A website may violate this policy if it appears on Google News and does not provide clear dates and subscriptions, as well as information about the authors, publication, publisher, company or network behind it and contact information.
Google Discover penalties
There are two manual penalties specific to Google Discover. They include:
- Adult themed content: Google has detected content that contains nudity, sexual acts, sexually suggestive activities or sexually explicit material.
- Misleading content: Google has detected content that appears to deceive users by promising a topic or story that is not reflected in the content.
Google News and Google Discover penalties
There are nine manual penalties for policy violations shared between Google News and Google Discover. They include:
- Dangerous content: Google has detected content that could cause serious and immediate damage to people or animals.
- Harassment content: Google has detected content that contains harassing, intimidating or threatening content.
- Hateful content: Google has detected hateful content.
- Handled media: Google has detected audio, video or image content that has been manipulated to deceive, defraud or mislead.
- Medical content: Google has detected content intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment for commercial purposes.
- Sexually explicit content: Google has detected content that contains explicit sexual images or videos intended primarily to cause sexual arousal.
- Terrorist content: Google has detected content that promotes terrorist or extremist acts, including recruiting, inciting violence or celebrating terrorist attacks.
- Violence and bloody content: Google has detected content that incites or glorifies violence. Google does not allow materials that are overly explicit or violent in order to disgust others.
- Vulgar language and desecration: Google has detected content that contains free obscenities or profanity.
Recovering from a manual action penalty
The recovery of a manual action is possible, but it takes work. When Google issues manual penalties, it sends a message to the site owner through Search Console.
The Search Console message will contain detailed information on how to recover from the penalty. Recovery usually consists of removing the offending content and submitting a reconsideration request.
For more information, see these best practices for writing reconsideration requests that work.
Source: Search Console Help