Google has two ways to penalize websites that try to cheat the ranking system: algorithmic penalties and manual actions. With manual actions, real people apply a penalty to the website that does not comply with Google’s guidelines.
On Twitter, Google’s John Mueller said that manual actions can be replaced by an algorithmic penalty. Here’s John Mueller’s tweet:
Yes, manual actions expire after time. Often things change over the years, so what might have required manual intervention to solve / improve back then, might be handled better algorithmically nowadays.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) 7. September 2018
Manual penalties vs. algorithmic penalties
Google uses manual penalties if algorithms aren’t good enough to do the job. As Google’s algorithms evolve, many manual penalties aren’t necessary anymore.
Use spam-free search engine optimization methods
If you use spam-free SEO methods, you do not have to worry about penalties. The tools in SEOprofiler are white-hat search engine optimization tools that help you to get high rankings while playing by the rules: