Google has launched its new Manual Actions Viewer feature in Webmaster Tools to enable users to know if their website ranking has taken a hit through manual webspam action from Google. Even though Google already sends email notifications when taking manual webspam action, this new feature will allow website owners to check the status of their website whenever they wish to do so.
The new Manual Actions viewer features can be accessed in Webmaster Tools under the “Search Traffic” section. Most users will know that everything is okay when they find a message stating “No manual webspam actions found” in the Manual Actions Viewer. However, around two percent of indexed domains may find other messages that indicate webspam problems. The problems will be displayed under two different headings that include Partial Matches and Site-Wide Matches.
In both the above conditions, website owners or webmasters will see messages under almost 12 categories such as “Thin Content”, “Hidden Text and/or Keyword Stuffing”, “Pure Spam”, etc. In case of Partial Matches, Google will also display all URLs affected for every spam problem up to 1,000 URLs for each listed problem. Google states that this should be enough for most average sites. Once you receive a specific manual webspam notice, you will be able to use the new “Request a Review” pop-up option to prove to Google just how you have fixed the reported problem.
Users that visit the existing reconsideration request page of Google will be guided in using the Manual Actions Viewer first to confirm if their website has actually been flagged by Google. The company is putting in additional efforts to make life easier for website owners and webmasters that receive manual action messages.
Google has also provided detailed help for all the different categories of specific notices in manual actions by way of dedicated help pages. You can also view videos on the above topic from Matt Cutts of Google as he explains the new feature in detail. The Manual Actions Viewer feature from Google has been launched for all languages currently offered in Google Webmaster Tools.