Manual action penalty assessment
A paid, fixed-scope assessment of your manual action: what triggered it, how far it reaches and how long recovery is likely to take.
Book your assessment
What the £250 booking fee covers
The assessment is a fixed-scope piece of work, paid up front, that answers the three questions every site owner asks when the notice lands: what did Google actually object to, how much of the site does it reach, and how long is recovery likely to take. You receive a written document you can take to your board, your developers or your agency.
What we do
We reproduce what the reviewer could see, sample URLs across the affected templates rather than relying on Google’s examples alone, and trace the problem back to the publishing rule, link campaign or piece of code that created it. Where the notice points at a template, we establish how many URLs share the same fault.
What you receive
A written assessment setting out the trigger, the evidence behind that conclusion, the commercial impact on affected sections, the work recovery would require and a realistic timeframe — including the part of the timeline Google controls. If the honest answer is that the site is better rebuilt on a clean domain, the assessment says so.
How it relates to the free brief
The free recovery brief is a triage: it tells us whether we can help and what access a diagnostic needs. This assessment is the paid, documented investigation. If you go on to book recovery work with us, the assessment fee is credited against it.
Questions about the assessment
Is the fee refundable?
The fee pays for the investigation itself, so it is not refundable once the work has started. If you book recovery work with us afterwards, it is credited in full against that cost.
What access do you need?
Read-only Search Console access to the affected property is the most useful, as it lets us see the notice and the performance data directly. We can work from exports and screenshots where access is not possible.
Can you guarantee the action will be lifted?
No, and nobody honestly can. Google decides whether to revoke a manual action after reviewing the fixes. What the assessment gives you is an accurate picture of what needs to change and how long it is likely to take.