Google has confirmed it is taking manual action against websites that are violating its March 2024 spam policies.

According to Search Engine Land, Google unveiled new policies aimed at cutting down spam in search results. The company is now following up by penalizing websites it believes are violating the new rules.

Google explains the policy in a support page:

Google issues a manual action against a site when a human reviewer at Google has determined that pages on the site are not compliant with Google’s spam policies. Most manual actions address attempts to manipulate our search index. Most issues reported here will result in pages or sites being ranked lower or omitted from search results without any visual indication to the user.

If your site is affected by a manual action, we will notify you in the Manual Actions report and in the Search Console message center.

The company outlines steps sites can take if they believe they were wrongly targeted, but the review process may take longer than many would like.

Most reconsideration reviews can take several days or weeks, although in some cases, such as link-related reconsideration requests, it may take longer than usual to review your request. You will be informed by email when we receive your request, so you’ll know it is active. You will also receive an email when the review is complete. Please don’t resubmit your request before you get a decision on any outstanding requests.