Google Manual Action Recovery Case Study

My website traffic dropped overnight — what happened?

102%Organic Recovery

SnowsBest is Australia's go-to snow sports and travel content site. They came to us in crisis — traffic had fallen off a cliff thanks to a Google manual action caused by a previous agency's sloppy schema markup. This was pure crisis recovery work, and it's one of the accounts I'm proudest of saving.

The Problem

A previous SEO agency had implemented schema markup so poorly that Google slapped the site with a manual action. Organic traffic collapsed. The client was terrified — their entire business model depended on organic search visibility.

What We Built

  • Manual action identification and remediation — diagnosed the schema issues, stripped the bad markup, and submitted a reconsideration request
  • On-site recovery plan targeting all internal and external errors
  • Backlink outreach and link acquisition to rebuild authority
  • Ongoing blog optimisation to rebuild content momentum

The Results

  • 90% increase in predicted users
  • 102% increase in organic visits
  • Google manual action successfully reversed
  • Exceeded the client's original 30% YoY traffic growth target

"Amazing, amazing, amazing! I honestly cannot thank you guys enough, having our traffic completely fall off the face of the earth was a terrifying experience and I would never have known what to do without Lawrence." — Rachael, SnowsBest

SnowsBest was personal — Rachael specifically credited our work by name. It's the kind of result that reinforced why I built StudioHawk's technical QA processes the way I did. No client should ever face a manual action because of their agency's work.

Read the full StudioHawk case study →

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About the Author

Lawrence Hitches is an AI SEO consultant based in Melbourne and General Manager of StudioHawk, Australia's largest dedicated SEO agency. He specialises in AI search visibility, technical SEO, and organic growth strategy - leading a team of 115+ across Melbourne, Sydney, London, and the US. Book a free consultation →