Technical SEO
Unnatural Links Manual Action: How to Recover
A step-by-step recovery plan based on Google’s own instructions.
An “Unnatural links to your site” manual action means Google has detected a pattern of unnatural, artificial, deceptive or manipulative links pointing to your site. Google says buying links or taking part in link schemes to manipulate rankings breaks its spam policies, and can lead to a manual action on some or all of the site.
Recovery is mostly patient clean-up work. Here’s the process Google describes.
Short answer: To recover from an unnatural links manual action: review Google’s link spam policy, export your links from Search Console, identify links that break the policy (start with the sites linking most and recent links), ask site owners to remove them or add rel=”nofollow”, disavow the links you can’t remove, then submit a reconsideration request explaining the issue, what you did and the outcome.
Key Takeaways
- Check the Manual actions report to confirm the action and whether it’s partial or site-wide.
- Export links from Search Console: Top linking sites or Latest links.
- Start with the sites linking most, and links created in the last few months.
- Ask owners to remove links or make them nofollow; disavow what you can’t remove.
- Document everything for your reconsideration request.
Step 1: Confirm the manual action
Open the Manual actions report in Search Console. Expand the action to see which pages are affected and whether it applies to part of the site or all of it. If you have more than one manual action, Google says to read about and fix all of them.
Step 2: Export and review your links
- In Search Console’s Links report, export by hostname (Top linking sites) or by date (Latest links).
- Review against Google’s link spam policy: paid links, link exchanges, automated links, low-quality directories, widget and footer links, forum comment links.
- If the list is long, start with the sites that link to you most, and links created in the last few months.
Step 3: Remove or neutralize bad links
- Contact each site owner and ask them to remove the link or prevent it passing PageRank, for example with rel=”nofollow”.
- Keep a record of every request, the date and the response.
- Use the disavow links tool for links you can’t get removed. Disavow at domain level when a whole site is the problem.
The disavow tool is for links you can’t remove. Disavowing good links can hurt, so be selective.
Step 4: Request review
When you’re confident the problem is fixed, request review from the Manual actions report. Google says a good request explains the issue, describes the steps taken and documents the outcome. See how to write a reconsideration request.
After recovery
Rankings may not return to their previous level, because links that were helping before no longer count. Build visibility through useful content and genuine mentions; never buy links that pass ranking credit.
Frequently asked questions
How long does recovery take?
It depends on the clean-up. Google says reconsideration reviews can take some time and it emails you with progress.
Do I have to remove every bad link?
Make a genuine effort to remove or nofollow links that break the policy, and disavow those you can’t remove.
Will my rankings return after the action is revoked?
Not necessarily to previous levels, since unnatural links that were counted before no longer help.
Want a second pair of eyes on your technical SEO?
We review crawling, indexing, rendering and speed issues by hand and give you a prioritized list of fixes, starting with a free manual audit.
Sources
- Search Console Help: Manual actions report
- Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web search
Last reviewed October 14, 2026.
Table of Contents
Need Technical SEO Help?
We find what stops Google from crawling and indexing your important pages, and fix the cause.
Related Guides
Free SEO Audit
A manual on-page and technical SEO review of your website, with prioritized fixes.