Manual action recovery

Structured Data Issue - Manual Action Recovery

Google has found schema markup on your pages that doesn't match what visitors can see or that breaks its structured data guidelines, so we audit all of it, put it right and get your eligibility for rich results reviewed.

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Is this the message in your Search Console?

Google’s Manual Actions report ↗

Search Console / Report example

Manual actions

Structured data issue

WHAT IS A STRUCTURED DATA MANUAL ACTION?

A structured data manual action is issued when a reviewer finds markup on your pages that uses techniques outside Google's structured data guidelines, such as marking up content that is invisible to users, marking up irrelevant or misleading content, or other manipulative behaviour. Google lists more than twenty specific issues under this one manual action, covering review markup, product markup, job postings, events, recipes, fact checks and more, so the first job is always to establish exactly which one applies to you.

WHAT DOES IT DO TO YOUR SITE?

The practical effect is that the affected pages stop being eligible for rich results, i.e. the star ratings, prices, job listings, event details and so on that were making your listings stand out, and for an ecommerce or a jobs site that drop in click-through rate can cost a LOT of traffic even though the pages themselves are still ranking.

Scope: Rich result eligibility
Typical clean-up time: Estimated after diagnosis
Review time: Several days or weeks

WHY DID GOOGLE ISSUE IT?

Review and rating markup has been added for reviews that were written by the business itself, or the same aggregate rating has been applied across every page of the site

The structured data describes content that isn't visible on the page, for example a rating or a price in the markup that a visitor can't find anywhere

Something that isn't a product has been marked up as a product, a company has been marked up as a product, or a promotion has been marked up as an event

Job posting markup has been used on expired jobs, on listing pages, on pages with no job on them or on jobs that charge the applicant a fee

A list page has one block of markup that aggregates several items together when each item should be marked up individually

HOW DO WE FIX IT?

We extract every piece of structured data from across the site, whether it's JSON-LD, Microdata or RDFa, and group it by schema type and by the template or plugin generating it
Structured data inventory
Evidence log · Structured data issue
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification date
We compare what the markup claims with what is actually visible on the page, which is where most of these issues are found
Markup-to-content comparison
Evidence log · Structured data issue
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification date
We check each schema type against the general structured data guidelines and the specific rules for that feature
Template corrections
Evidence log · Structured data issue
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification date
We correct or remove the offending markup at source, which usually means changing a template, a plugin setting or a tag manager tag so that it's fixed on every page at once
Validation evidence
Evidence log · Structured data issue
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification date
We validate the result, then write and submit the reconsideration request
Submission record
Evidence log · Structured data issue
Affected URL or template
Action taken
Verification date

WHAT GOES INTO THE RECONSIDERATION REQUEST?

The request states which guideline the markup was breaking, where it was being generated, what was changed and gives example URLs for the reviewer to test, and where we've removed markup entirely we say so, because a reviewer would much rather see non-compliant markup gone than see an attempt to keep it on a technicality.

Reconsideration request service →

Questions about recovery

Will my rankings be affected or only my rich results?

This manual action is aimed at the rich result features and not at where the page ranks, however losing stars and prices from your listings normally reduces clicks, which is why it's still worth fixing quickly.

Can I still show reviews of my own business on my site?

You can display them, the issue is marking them up for review rich results when they are written or controlled by the business being reviewed, which Google's guidelines don't allow.

How long does recovery take?

Your diagnostic will include a clean-up estimate, and Google’s review usually takes several days or weeks, with link reviews sometimes taking longer.

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