Hi all, I think it may be possible that a domain I purchased just before Chrismas had already been banned by a previous owner (possibly as far back as 2002!). You can imagine my shock when only a few weeks after opening the site that I discover there's a chance it's already been banned! I ran my domain name through 123promotion's Google Ban Verifier as well as a few others and the results have either been inconclusive or or positive (positive as in yes, I'm up shit creek without a paddle). I have also performed a search on a few webmaster forums (such as here) to learn a little more about Google's banning system and possible ways of rectifying the situation. I have also contacted Google support just a few moments ago. I was just wondering if anyone knew of a way to check to see if a domain has had a previous owner (I checked archive.org but I'll be damned if that site doesn't crash my browser!). I can't be certain that I am banned, another possibility is that Google simply hasn't "discovered" my site yet, although I do have sufficient back links, but the possibility that there was a previous webmaster gives me the impression he did some damage. My site is basically a small gaming fansite dedicated to provided information about one specific video game. I have no intention of making any money from the site, there isn't a single advertisment, it is genuinely just a "fun" site and I have no intention of cheating my way up the search engine ladder. Do you think the techs at Google will understand my position? Or just ignore my plight and delete my email on sight. In fact, any advice at all would help, I'm sure you can understand that I am tiny bit concerned at this point. Thanks in advance.
ViciousSummer, How silly of me, you can view my site here. I must again stress that I have no intention of making money from this site, it is my personal site that I run for the enjoyment and nothing more so I'm sure you can understand I have no wish to jeapordise it with any blackhat techniques. I would also like to request that nobody directly link to any of the pages on my site as I intend to remove the link once the situation has been resolved. I don't want any future affiliates thinking that my site could be potentially harmful to trade links with now do I? All advice is welcome and would be appreciated, thank you.
The Way back machine has 5 entries that show up from May 30 2002 up to Nov. 22 2002. No imageses load or text other than an email: khaoz@ex0focus.com Code (markup): On Nov. 19 2002 it looks like the site was turned into a parked page.
roman1, Thank you for your reply. I had managed to learn that much from archive.org although I can't say it made alot of sense to me. I guess what I'm looking for is confirmation from someone that my site is either banned or not banned, and if you believe I have a leg to stand on with Google. I mean surely, if there was ever a case for unbanning a site, this would be it, right? Please let me know your opinions.
looks like it's banned. there's also this tool, but it's not very accurate.. http://www.cached.it/english/googlebanned.php
@T0PS3O Hacked? I have no idea. If the domain was ever hacked, it will have been when the previous webmaster was in charge of it. But yes, it's a safe bet to that the domain is clean since I gained ownership of it. @Michael_Goldman@ I actually used that tool myself, and it does mention that it isn't 100% accurate. Sorry to bring this up again, but do you guys believe that Google might unban myself, I have sent an explanation in an email to their support department. I mean why I shouldn't be held responsible for something that a former webmaster did years ago? Also, why was this moved to website reviews? I am not interested in a review. I posted this originally under the Google forum because I have a problem involving Google. Would a moderator kindly move this back to it's original spot please.
When a domain expires after a little while it is automatically removed from the index, this is to put a dampner on the expired domain name market. When this happens and you perform a straight forward search for that domain you will see ... Sorry, no information is available for the URL www yourdomain com * If the URL is valid, try visiting that web page by clicking on the following link: www yourdomain com * Find web pages that contain the term "www yourdomain com" However in your case when you perform that search you get this... Sorry, no information is available for the URL www yourdomain com * Find web pages that contain the term "www yourdomain com" That normally indicates a manual removal IE: Someone at Google has looked at the site and physically removed that domain from their index (a ban). I doubt if any one here can tell you why. The proper way to go about this would be to put in for a "re-inclusion request" you can read how to do that from MC's Blog here Some people however have said once the domain is re-included is doesn't perform like it should do, in other words its carrying some sort of baggage, that's not always the case but it does happen. What I would do Is scrap that domain and buy another, whats the point of months of work if there is a possibility that your not going to get anything out of it? The domain that you have now is available with the hyphenated version you could choose that or something else. Make sure your site is squeaky clean and point the new domain to it and get to work without weeks of worry for nothing. Just my 2 cents.
This is about your site being banned, related to your particular situation in this very unique instance. This is not general discussion about Google. That makes it a website review since in order to find out, we have to review your website, content, links etc. It won't be moved back, it's not discussing Google as such, it's discussing your site.
Thank you for the detailed explanation E13 9AZ. Although unfortunatley all the evidence is pointing towards my domain being banned, which isn't the most welcome news seeing as the domain is no more then two months old and was only opened just over a fortnight ago. Ah well. I've been doing some reasearch on the amount of cases where Google has reallowed banned sites back into their index, so I imagine I have a fair chance of getting back in. T0PS3O, Yes, I see your point. Hope I didn't come across as if I was demanding you to move this thread back to it's original destination, as that simply wasn't the case. I can see your site of the arguement and I have no quarrels. Would you mind linking me to the source of this information? If this is a genuine flaw with being reintroduced into Google's index then I would certainly rather take my chances with another domain, but I would like to hold onto it if possible.
eyesight looking at your site. But then all black sites kill my eyesight. Just can not see links in red. Reading a posting, and poof! there is a red thing there that I have to really squint to see. Try something other than red on the black.
It all depends on what your goal is with the domain. If it's a case of you just want it indexed then keep it and wait for the re-inclusion request to happen. It might be 1 week it might be 6 months who knows? Google is so hard to rank now for anything competitive and it takes an absolute age to get anywhere, why start your campaign with a possible handicap? I would rather start with a nice clean fresh domain that I know in the back of my mind has got no other problems with it. What I'm saying is not fact it is what I have picked up through reading many webmaster forums and gathering information for a similar experience I had about 2 years ago, you can take it or leave it. A not performing well domain that has been re-included could well be the webmaster's inadequate ability to generally rank well regardless of the domain being previously banned or not. The point is why take the chance when domains are as cheap as chips. Unless your domain is of any value and receives lots of hits from other search engines, links, directories blah blah blah what is the point of going through all this hassle?