Answers
How do you check if a website for sale has a Google penalty?
Short answer: A Google penalty, or manual action, is listed in Search Console's Manual actions report, so ask for read-only access and look there first. An algorithmic drop shows no message: line up 16 months of Search Console clicks against Google's published update dates. Price a penalised site on what it earns now, not before.
Penalty or algorithm update: what is the difference?
A manual action is a penalty a human reviewer at Google applies when pages break Google's spam policies; it appears in Search Console's Manual actions report. An algorithmic drop is not a penalty and shows no message: the site simply ranks lower after a core, spam or other update. A site for sale can have either, and both cut traffic.
How do you check for a manual action?
- Ask for restricted user access to the Search Console property (read-only; the seller can remove you).
- Open Security & Manual Actions, then Manual actions. "No issues detected" is what you want to see.
- Ask whether there has ever been one and whether a reconsideration request was filed. Ask to see the message history.
How do you check for an algorithmic hit?
Export 16 months of clicks from Search Console's Performance report and line them up against the dates of Google updates published on the Search Status Dashboard. A drop that starts in the same week as an update and does not recover is an algorithmic hit. Our answer on how to tell if a content site was hit by a Google update shows the method with a worked example.
What if the seller won't give Search Console access?
Treat the traffic as unverified. A screen share where you choose the date range is the minimum. Third-party traffic estimates can show the shape of a drop, but they are estimates, not evidence.
How does this change the price?
A site with an unresolved manual action is a recovery project, not a cash-flowing business; price it on what it earns now, not before the drop. For an algorithmic hit, use the current run-rate and stress-test it with our traffic-drop test. The checker raises search dependence, last month below average and declining revenue, the listing-level signs of a recent drop.
Sources
- Search Console Help, Manual actions report, read 12 October 2026
- Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search, read 12 October 2026
- Google Search Status Dashboard, Ranking incident history, read 7 October 2026
- Search Console Help, Managing owners, users, and permissions, read 7 October 2026
Related
- Was the site hit by a Google update?
- Check a domain's history
- Traffic-drop test
- Is buying a content site worth it?
- Glossary of listing terms
- More questions buyers ask
Get the content site (display ads) seller checklist
Enter your email and the next page gives you the content site (display ads) seller question checklist (web page and PDF) straight away, no waiting, along with the other free files: seller question checklists for eleven business types, the 72-hour vetting plan and a deal-tracker spreadsheet. Nothing is emailed; you download them on the page.
No newsletter: we send at most one email, when paid memos open. Reply "stop" to hello@firstpassmemo.com to be removed. Looking at a live listing priced $10k–150k? Apply for a free beta memo instead; its confirmation page has the same downloads.
Composite examples are invented and labelled. Figures from other sites are quoted with a link and the date we read them; FirstPass figures are asking prices and seller-stated profit, not sale prices. Informational screening only, not investment, legal or tax advice.