For a while Google has been sending notifications to users when they detect some form of spam related breach of the terms of use. This may be due to poor quality links, suspected link schemes or other frowned upon ‘black hat’ practices. This has put the SEO world in a bit of a tizzy because it started to expose those who were using dodgy methods to get sites to rank. The more traditional freelance SEO vets were starting to form a smile as they realised that the tide was turning.
Now Google has added a Manual Actions viewer to its webmaster tools platform. So site users can see if they have some sort of manual penalty applied to all or sections of their site. These manual actions are instigated by a Google representative visiting the site in question and determining that it violates the terms of use.
The new tab shows the type of penalty that is applied (if any) and whether it is effective site wide or just on particular pages.
It would appear that they are also notifying webmasters when it looks like there are, what it considers to be, unnatural links pointing to a site. In these cases it confirms that the inbound links themselves have been penalised rather than the site.
This is useful data from Google as in the past we just had to make our own assessment as to whether a penalty had been applied.
Worth noting that whatever penalty you have (if any) as probably been applied for some time. This just makes it visible to us.
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If you think your site has a problem talk to a Google penalty recovery expert today.