Unnatural Links Warning: What It Means and How to Fix It
It's a Google manual action: a reviewer found links to or from your site built to manipulate rankings. Remove or nofollow those links, disavow what you can't remove, then request a review.
Where it shows: the Manual Actions report in Search Console.
Review time: "several days or weeks", longer for link cases.
Of 6 publishers who brought up Google's link rules when replying to MentionAgent outreach, 5 used them to say no, 4 of them to a reciprocal link exchange.
Replies from 1 June to 9 October 2026. Method at the end.
What an unnatural links warning means
Google issues a manual action "when a human reviewer at Google has determined that pages on the site are not compliant with Google's spam policies" (Manual Actions report help). For links there are two versions:
| Warning | Google's description | You fix |
|---|---|---|
| Unnatural links to your site | "a pattern of unnatural, artificial, deceptive, or manipulative links pointing to your site" | Your backlinks |
| Unnatural links from your site | "a pattern of unnatural artificial, deceptive, or manipulative outbound links on your site" | Links on your pages |
It can hit "some or all of your site". Expand the action in the report to see which pages.
How to fix unnatural links to your site
- Export your links in Search Console: Top linking sites > Export, or Links report > Export external links > Latest links.
- Check them against the link spam policy. Start with the sites linking most and links from the last few months.
- Ask site owners to remove each bad link or add rel="nofollow".
- Disavow the rest, using "domain:" for sites with many links (how to disavow; our disavow file generator builds the file).
- Request a review, documenting what was removed and what wasn't.
Don't skip step 3. Google says "blindly adding all backlinks to the disavow file is not considered a good-faith effort, and will not be enough to make your reconsideration request successful." A backlink audit separates the bad links from the organic ones you should keep.
How to fix unnatural links from your site
Find links on your pages that "were paid for or that appear to violate" the policy, "such as excessive link exchanges". Remove them, or stop them passing PageRank with rel="nofollow" (or a more specific value) or by redirecting them through a page blocked by robots.txt. Then request a review. Paid links are allowed "as long as they are qualified with a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute".
Which links Google counts as unnatural
Examples from Google's link spam policy:
- Exchanging money, goods or services for links (buying backlinks)
- "Excessive link exchanges" (link exchanges)
- Links made by automated programs or services
- Advertorials whose links pass ranking credit, and optimized anchor text in guest posts or press releases
- "Low-quality directory or bookmark site links" (directory links)
- Links in widgets, or across the footers or templates of many sites
- Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature
How to write the reconsideration request
Google says a good request "Explains the exact quality issue on your site. Describes the steps you've taken to fix the issue. Documents the outcome of your efforts." For links: your exported list, the removal requests, what came down, and the disavow file.
"Most reconsideration reviews can take several days or weeks, although in some cases, such as link-related reconsideration requests, it may take longer than usual." Don't resubmit before you get a decision.
What publishers say about unnatural links
In replies to MentionAgent outreach since June 2026, 6 publishers brought up Google's link rules. 4 cited them to decline a reciprocal link exchange, 1 to decline a request without saying what it was, and 1, a placement seller, to set rules for gambling articles. Publishers who know the policy turn down the links that lead to this warning; the ones they do give are editorial links.
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- Data: inbound replies to MentionAgent link-building outreach, 1 June to 9 October 2026, excluding our own sales outreach. A reply counted if its own text (quoted history removed) mentioned a penalty, unnatural links, a link scheme, a manual action, or Google's guidelines, policies or rules. Matches were read by hand and counted once per sending domain.
- Sources: Google's Manual Actions report help, spam policies and disavow help, checked 9 October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is an unnatural links warning?
A manual action in Search Console: a Google reviewer found a pattern of manipulative links pointing to your site, or placed on it. It can affect some or all of your pages.
Can I just disavow all my backlinks?
No. Google says disavowing every backlink is not a good-faith effort and won't be enough for the request to succeed. Try to get bad links removed first.
How long does a reconsideration request take?
Google says most take several days or weeks, and link-related requests may take longer than usual.