Google's structured data guidelines prohibit markup that misrepresents a page, describes content users cannot see, or is otherwise misleading. When a site violates them, Google can issue a manual action for structured data issues, shown in Search Console's Manual actions report. The usual effect is losing rich result eligibility, either for affected pages or sitewide, rather than losing rankings.
Common causes
- Marking up content that is not visible to users
- Fake or self-written reviews and ratings
- Ratings applied to a whole site or category rather than a specific item
- Markup describing a different product, event or job than the page shows
- Job postings that are expired, fake or require payment to apply
- Event markup on coupons, offers or non-events
Recovery
Read the manual action description, fix the markup across all affected templates, and submit a reconsideration request explaining what changed. Google reviews the request and lifts the action if the issue is resolved. Recovery restores eligibility; it does not guarantee that rich results return.
Algorithmic handling
Not every problem leads to a manual action. Google can also ignore markup it judges misleading or low quality without notifying the site. If valid markup never produces rich results, policy and quality issues are worth checking alongside technical errors.
Example
A ratings widget gone wrong
Bellhaven, a SaaS company, installs a plugin that adds a five-star AggregateRating to every page, including blog posts and the pricing page, based on homepage testimonials. Search Console shows a manual action for structured data issues. The team removes the sitewide rating, keeps a genuine rating only on the product page, and files a reconsideration request.
Common mistakes
Fixing one page and resubmitting
Manual actions often cover patterns. Fix every template that produces the problem first.
Questions
Google describes it as affecting rich result eligibility. Other spam problems on the same site can carry separate actions.
