When Google first released an “interactive infographic” titled “how search works” in 2013 I ignored it.

Then Barry Schwartz convinced me to take a second look.

The infographic started with the number of “30 trillion individual pages” Google had in its index.

Later on in the infographic another number was mentioned:

0.22% of all domains in the Google index have been subject to a “manual action” type of penalty.

What does this mean? Billions of sites are affected by Google penalties dubbed “manual actions”.

Have you been hit by one? You’re not alone.

I also have been subject to one on a client site.

What are manual actions or penalties?

So-called “manual actions” show up on your Google Search Console (click the link to check whether you have one).

They usually mean that your website has been demoted in Google search results.

These penalties allegedly happen when actual humans decide you deserve one.

Remember that Google also employs algorithmic aka automated penalties which are much more common.

Algorithmic penalties or algorithm updates do not involve any human oversight when your site gets demoted.

Small number of penalized sites

Anyway, I was intrigued by this “small” number.

You probably know quotes often (falsely) attributed to Winston Churchill like:

“Do not trust any statistics you did not fake yourself.”

At first I was a bit overwhelmed.

I tried to count how much 0.22% of 30 trillion is. I asked other people and even they were unable to really help me.

Finally I asked Google search itself and the answer was 66,000,000,000 or 66 billion.

There is a problem with that number though.

We know how many “individual pages” Google indexes but not how many “domains” they penalize manually.

Assuming that a domain can have dozens, thousands or even millions of pages (think WordPress.com) we can’t be sure how to divide that number.

As far as I know Google does not disclose how many domains they index.

Let’s assume for simplicity’s sake that they index “only” one trillion domains (the assumption would be that a domain has a median number of 30 pages).

Now let’s remember that one trillion is 1000 billion and one billion is 1000 million.

Then let’s just take 0.22% out of that.

It’s still 2.2 billion sites that have been manually “marked a spam”.

How would it be even possible?

How many real people, even including so-called Google quality raters, would be needed to do the work?

I have to admit that I am so shocked and awed by these numbers that this post is still probably wildly inaccurate.

So I hope Google will clarify how many sites or domains have been penalized.

Yeah, I know that a domain can house more than one site. Mine does!

That’s why these “individual pages” vs “domains” numbers are pretty useless and difficult to compare.

How many sites have been actually affected by manual penalties or “manual actions” in the Google jargon?

Are there billions of sites manually penalized by Google?

How many more have been subject to algorithmic penalties and updates?

Did Google penalize you?

Are you one of the billions of people affected?

Share your story with me on social media. I’m onreact everywhere: LinkedIn, Gmail are the fastest ways to contact me though.

I have been myself the victim of several penalties either on my own site or on client sites.

Yes, despite being known as one of the most ethical SEO specialists around.

It’s nothing to be ashamed of! We can all learn from your mistakes.

I might even be able to help you with common ones like the helpful content update.

Or we can even expose Google and their unjust system of judge, jury, and executioner all in one.