A Look into a Manual Review by Google

Feb 7, 2008 - 8:46 am 3 by

Apparently, SlightlyShadySEO is very shady. He noticed that his site was manually reviewed by Google and took the time to blog about it. He writes:

Manual reviews are Google’s awknowledgment that anything algorithmic will have flaws. ... The manual review I stumbled across today was one that appears to be centered around cloaking and [possibly] link spam.

By examining specific referrer URLs, he assumes that Google is doing certain searches based on webmaster spam reports or assumptions of cloaking. He's also concluded that since the visits were rather slow (and came from Google IPs), they had to have been done by humans employed by Google.

The entire post is an insightful read, and if SlightlyShadySEO is correct, is very enlightening about the process of manual reviews.

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 4, 2025

Jul 4, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google June 2025 Core Update, Search Volatility, Insights Report, Ads & More

Jul 4, 2025 - 8:01 am
Bing Search

Bing Search Tests Zoomable & Sticky Related Searches

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google

Google AI Mode Can Respond In Non-English Languages

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:41 am
Bing Search

Bing Tests Local Place Listings In Green

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Merchant Center Gains Automatic Shipping Updates

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Microsoft Launches Smart Web Ads