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Starting fresh with a new domain after Penguin. Best way?

by AlbertMora
18 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Situation

One of our customers has a large domain with thousand of pages. Domain is not banned (results are displaying when you do a site:domain.com query in Google), but after Penguin&Panda updates the domain seems to be suffering some kind of penalty, because SERPS have substantially decreased. This is due to low quality incoming links.

All content is original and without any duplicates or on-page overoptimization issues

For internal reasons (not related with SEO), he plans to move to a new domain, and he's taking into account several options:

1- 301 old domain to new domain. This option ensures not loosing the present traffic, but he's afraid the penalty will be inherited

2 . Remove all content from old domain and just leave a message "you are visting and old page, click here to visit the new one", with a nofollow link to the new one

3- The same as above, but the link would be embedded somehow in flash or javascript, to be sure Google is not following the link

4 Completely remove the old domain, without leaving any message or link.

Which option do you think it's the best? Which advice would you give him?

Thx
#domain #fresh #penguin #starting
  • Profile picture of the author gotlinks
    Originally Posted by AlbertMora View Post

    Situation

    One of our customers has a large domain with thousand of pages. Domain is not banned (results are displaying when you do a site:domain.com query in Google), but after Penguin&Panda updates the domain seems to be suffering some kind of penalty, because SERPS have substantially decreased. This is due to low quality incoming links.

    All content is original and without any duplicates or on-page overoptimization issues

    For internal reasons (not related with SEO), he plans to move to a new domain, and he's taking into account several options:

    1- 301 old domain to new domain. This option ensures not loosing the present traffic, but he's afraid the penalty will be inherited

    2 . Remove all content from old domain and just leave a message "you are visting and old page, click here to visit the new one", with a nofollow link to the new one

    3- The same as above, but the link would be embedded somehow in flash or javascript, to be sure Google is not following the link

    4 Completely remove the old domain, without leaving any message or link.

    Which option do you think it's the best? Which advice would you give him?

    Thx
    If there is a penalty the 301 would inherit it to some extent but not completely.

    I would 301 it and only build quality links from now on to the long-tail pages and stay away from direct home-page linking.

    Also be sure to throw some naked links in there which after panda / penguin are working for rank improvements.
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  • Profile picture of the author gotlinks
    I am not google so i couldn't say for sure.

    But I believe the 301 would allow the QUALITY links to pass through but not let the junk.

    Almost acting as a buffer site.
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  • Profile picture of the author GodMode52
    If your site is penalized a 301 redirect will pass the penality over a new domain in about 3 weeks. Build a new domain , rank for 20-30 keywords and then point to your old site for more information so you still have some use out of your old content.
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  • Profile picture of the author ronnieavelino
    Originally Posted by AlbertMora View Post

    Situation

    One of our customers has a large domain with thousand of pages. Domain is not banned (results are displaying when you do a site:domain.com query in Google), but after Penguin&Panda updates the domain seems to be suffering some kind of penalty, because SERPS have substantially decreased. This is due to low quality incoming links.

    All content is original and without any duplicates or on-page overoptimization issues

    For internal reasons (not related with SEO), he plans to move to a new domain, and he's taking into account several options:

    1- 301 old domain to new domain. This option ensures not loosing the present traffic, but he's afraid the penalty will be inherited

    2 . Remove all content from old domain and just leave a message "you are visting and old page, click here to visit the new one", with a nofollow link to the new one

    3- The same as above, but the link would be embedded somehow in flash or javascript, to be sure Google is not following the link

    4 Completely remove the old domain, without leaving any message or link.

    Which option do you think it's the best? Which advice would you give him?

    Thx
    Hi,

    For me No. 3 would be the best option.
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  • Profile picture of the author CourtTuttle
    I would use option #2. That shows Google that you aren't trying to pass the value of the crappy links to the new site. That is THEIR method for not passing value to the new site.

    If the site has a following, people will start linking to the new site as soon as they figure out where it is.

    It's going to take some time to rebuild but it sounds like the best option. You don't want to risk passing any of the bad mojo over by doing a 301.
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  • Profile picture of the author K Mec
    With option 2 + you can put automatic redirection after 5 sec or similar.
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    • Profile picture of the author retsek
      Originally Posted by K Mec View Post

      With option 2 + you can put automatic redirection after 5 sec or similar.
      FYI, short cross-domain meta refreshes (5 seconds or less in my experience) behave just like 301 redirects ..in BOTH Google and Bing.
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      • Profile picture of the author AlbertMora
        Originally Posted by retsek View Post

        FYI, short cross-domain meta refreshes (5 seconds or less in my experience) behave just like 301 redirects ..in BOTH Google and Bing.
        That's what I also thought.


        By the way do you know how long would Google take to deindex the old site and index the new one? Could the new site suffer any kind of duplicate content penalty?
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        • Profile picture of the author cooler1
          Originally Posted by AlbertMora View Post

          That's what I also thought.


          By the way do you know how long would Google take to deindex the old site and index the new one? Could the new site suffer any kind of duplicate content penalty?
          If you use the remove url tool in GWT, the old site can be removed within hours although it can sometimes take upto 5 days. Duplicate content is only an issue if the same content appears on the same website.
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          • Profile picture of the author AlbertMora
            Originally Posted by cooler1 View Post

            If you use the remove url tool in GWT, the old site can be removed within hours although it can sometimes take upto 5 days. Duplicate content is only an issue if the same content appears on the same website.
            Thank you for the info. On the other hand, which of the 4 options would you recommend?
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  • Profile picture of the author kilobytestechnologies
    option 2 seems the best one..go for it..
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  • Profile picture of the author Luke555
    I will also use option number 2.It is best solution in this situation.
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  • Profile picture of the author kakucis
    Whatever you choose don't do redirect. I had a lot of website hit by Panda and Penguin and most of them I just let to expire because even before Panda they were not doing anything good.
    Since I didn't have a lot of traffic left (around 100 visitors a day) I created a message saying that we have moved and left URL to the new website but as inactive link. If someone really want to visit, they will find the way.
    Then I setup my new domain but went through all the articles (around 1200) and edited them. Less keywords, better titles, longer posts etc. Took me few weeks to complete.

    Now this website without any backlinks is getting more visitors than ever and I will keep adding more articles instead of building links just to see what is going on.

    So don't go for redirects because its not worth the risk
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