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Google issues lots of different manual actions or penalties on sites for various reasons. But not all those manual actions lead to a ranking demotion in Google.
Google's Matt Cutts said this on Twitter that "not every manual action gives a ranking demotion."
Here is the Tweet:
@jennyhalasz @rustybrick depends; not every manual action gives a ranking demotion. For example, we might just distrust your outgoing links.
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) April 8, 2014For most experienced SEOs, this should not be something new. But it is nice to have on record.
I experienced this a lot when it came to my link scandal here. I was a bit surprised then to see no ranking change in the site after removing the links but truth is, I did not see a ranking decline by having the links. Although I thought the internal link flow was impacted, so I was confused a bit.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Comments:
n0tSEO
04/09/2014 12:26 pm
Guess that's one of the implications of the term "manual". :) Human beings are flexible, they do not adhere to strict algorithmic processes. That's indeed good news for anybody surviving on Google's traffic to get customers.
Josh Zehtabchi
04/09/2014 01:01 pm
Very interesting statement. This really makes me think about clients who come to me with massive losses, but no penalty. Perhaps their links were penalized and thus, lost all outgoing trust to the clients site. Good share.
Durant Imboden
04/09/2014 02:30 pm
Interesting. It might make some link buyers wonder what they're getting (or not getting) for their money.
Ashutosh R
04/09/2014 03:22 pm
Very good share by Matt! it will further dissuade spam things.
Jenny Halasz
04/09/2014 04:01 pm
Thanks for sharing this in a wider forum, Barry. I agree, good to have it confirmed.
Josh Zehtabchi
04/09/2014 06:49 pm
Exactly - What about sellers? A site might have PR4 but holds the value of a PR1, could cause a huge snowball affect, IMHO.
Rahul Trivedi
04/10/2014 06:56 am
@barry , i have one question. If domain is about to selling products and if we pass the links from coupons and deals website to it, will it be affected in ranking? Can domain be penalized?
Robert
04/10/2014 12:23 pm
and they not show that manual action in gwt. So, basically, they cheating us.
StevenLockey
04/10/2014 03:50 pm
The sellers don't care so long as they can blag the buyers out of as much money as possible ;)
Gracious Store
04/14/2014 04:02 am
What type of specific manual actions could affect the raking of a site?
Linkworkers
04/15/2014 12:36 am
Answer: SandBox... that came first on my mind. You get tons of visitors daily, then in just one second BOOM, you are on the 200+ result for that "overbuilt keyword". And return to the previous ranking is almost impossible and requires a lot of effort.