A manual penalty from Google is a form of punishment imposed on a website by the search engine giant for violating its quality guidelines. Unlike algorithmic penalties, which are automatically applied, manual penalties are manually reviewed and issued by Google’s team of human evaluators. These penalties can result in a decrease in search engine rankings, loss of organic traffic, and even removal from the search index. They are typically given for practices such as spammy link building, keyword stuffing, and other black hat SEO tactics that aim to manipulate search results. To recover from a manual penalty, website owners must identify and rectify the offending issues and then submit a reconsideration request to Google for review.