How I Was Able To Detect And Fix Google Major Spam Problem On My Website

Step on How to Fix the Google Major Spam Problem Manual Action Applied to Website

If you receive a message in your email or on your google webmaster console from Google Search Console Team stating the following'

Major spam problems on http://www.yourwebsitname.com/

To: Webmaster of http://www.yourwebsitname.com/,

Google has detected that your site violates our Webmaster Guidelines. Because this critical issue lowers the quality of search results for users, Google has prevented the offending pages from showing in Google Search results. This manual spam action has been applied to www.yourwebsitname.com /. To reinstate your site, you must significantly change the content to conform to our guidelines. Only after making those changes should you submit a reconsideration request in order to have your content included in Google Search results.

Here are the steps i followed to be able to detect and fix it

Step 1.

Sign into your Google webmaster console [direct link here >> https://www.google.com/webmasters]

Steps 2.

Click on the website name, that the manual spam action was applied to

Steps 3.

From your Dashboard > Craw > Crawl Errors

Look out for links that is taking googlebot to non existing page, whenever it craw your website.

Note:

Take note of the date Google Search Console Team applied manual spam action to your website, as this will give us some clue to what specific date to look out for link that is broken in the webmaster console

You can also use this website http://www.siteliner.com/ to detect broken link in a website

The free version only allows you to use it once in 30 days.

What that means is that, if you have detected a broken link and you fixed it, once you re-visit the website within that 30days, it will still be showing you the old result, until you wait after 30 days. to see the new result.

Fixing of the link show error whenever googlebot crawl your website.

Steps 4.

After you have detected the link giving out error

Log into you blogger home page (direct link https://www.blogger.com/home)

Dashboard > Template> Edit HTML

Search for the broken url and replace it with the correct one

Here the broken link is found in the website template

If the broken link is found on a post page. Open the post page and make correction to the link

Enabling of Custom Page Not Found and Customs Redirects

From your blogger Dashboard > Settings> Search preferences

On the custom page not found enter the following script

<h1>Oops 404!</h1>

<br><b>The page your are looking for may have been renamed, moved or is no longer available.</b>

<br><br><b>You will be redirected to homepage shortly.</b>

<script>

blogger_redirect = setTimeout(function() { location.pathname= "/" }, 7000);

</script>

Enabling of Custom Redirects.

Custom redirect is used to redirect a link that is wrongly enter/type in the address bar to the correct.

From your Google webmaster console, if crawl error show you a link that is wrongly spelt by user visiting your website, with the help of custom redirect you can manually point such link typed incorrect to the supposed real link they intend visiting.

From your blogger Dashboard > Settings> Search preferences

To set it click on Edit > New redirect

In the field from > type in the incorrect url that is showing error

In the field to > type in the suppose correct url that the user intend to visit

Check on permanent

Click on save, finally click on save changes

How To Submit A Reconsideration Request?

After you are through, is now for you to apply for reconsideration

In your Google webmaster tools, click on Search Traffic > Manual Actions> click on Requite a review

Type in your message stating how you were able to resolve it.

Check on I acknowledge that my site does not violate google's webmaster guidelines.

Click on request a review.

A copy of the message will be sent to your email after submission

If done correctly after a week, you will get a message from Google Search Console Team stating the following

To: Webmaster of http:// www.yourwebsitname.com /,

Good news! Your reconsideration request has been approved and Google has removed any manual action on your site. Bear in mind that removal of a manual action doesn’t guarantee that your site’s ranking will increase.

Check the Manual Action Viewer

It can take some time before the status of your site is updated in the Manual Actions Viewer and our crawling and indexing systems. You can confirm that your site does not have any manual actions by looking in the Manual Action Viewer.

Check Security Issues

If your site was hacked, other vulnerabilities not mentioned in the Manual Actions Viewer could be affecting your site. Check the Security Issues section of Search Console for any issues that need to be fixed

Image 7.

Wait for 48 hours after receiving the message from Google Search Console Team for your website to start showing up on Google search result.

Copy of the message I sent as reconsideration request to google when sparm action was applied to my blog

Message start here>>>>>>

Dear Google Webspam team member,

Thank you for taking the time to read our request. After receiving message from Google, dated August 8, 2016, Subject Title: Major Spam problem I made some research online on why a manual spam action has been applied to my blogger blog; I found out that one of the major reasons is as a result of broken link, which is not good for search engine and for human as well, and also I found out that, i have not set or activated custom page redirect to redirect non existence page to the home page

Below are the procedures I follow to resolve broken link and to activate custom page redirect to show (error 404)

Detecting of broken link through Google webmaster console.

I log into my Google webmaster account

I click on craw, then craw errors

From there I saw the link that is broken and leading to non-existing page, whenever googlebot craw.

The broken link is found in the header of all my page, there by leading google bot to non existence url any time it craw pages of my blog.

Here is the broken link found in the header section of my blogger blog

2013/11/national-open-university-noun-post-graduate-application-programme-form-for-admission-and-list-of-courses-fees.html

Fixing of the link showing errors in webmaster console

I log into my blogger account,

Click on template,

Click on edit HTML

I Search for the below broken url, that was generating error whenever google bot craws any of my page.

2013/11/national-open-university-noun-post-graduate-application-programme-form-for-admission-and-list-of-courses-fees.html

I then replace it with the correct url

http://www.youwebsitename.com/2013/11/national-open-university-noun-post-graduate-application-programme-form-for-admission-and-list-of-courses-fees.html

Enabling of Custom Page Not Found

For the custom page not found, after logging into my blogger account,

I click on setting,

i click on custom page not found, i then copy and past the below code into the field box, then i click on saves

<h1>Oops 404!</h1>

<br><b>The page your are looking for may have been renamed, moved or is no longer available.</b>

<br><br><b>You will be redirected to homepage shortly.</b>

<script>

blogger_redirect = setTimeout(function() { location.pathname= "/" }, 7000);

</script>

I have learnt my lesson, from now on; I will be checking my Google webmaster console tools for possible error coming from my blog.

Thank you again for reading this request.

Sincerely

Message end here>>>>>>