Guys, I got this situation in which a domain I bought is deemed to be previously banned by Google due to the former owner's activities. It is still banned. So, I have two version of the name, one with a hyphen, and without hyphen. The non hyphen one is banned by Google. I have been developing a site on the hyphen version and it is doing better with each month, getting ranked and visited. But now, I wish to change the site from the hyphen, to the non hyphen domain; meaning from the unbanned to the banned domain.. I think this will be a better move in the long term. But, how do I get the domain unbanned by Google? I have written twice to them in Webmaster tools, and all they say, is they will look it over and if the domain is no longer in "violation of Google's webmaster guidelines," it will be allowed back it...I've been waiting, and no sign of any indexing... Right now, the banned domain is not having any website on...except that I just setup a blog on it. I am not sure if I should do this: Transfer all the database of the unbanned (hyphen domain) to the banned domain and redirect 301 the old hyphen domain. Will this bomb whatever SERPs I have? How will Google react? Cos I don't think Google is going to approve a banned domain IF it has no website on it....all it has now is a blog front page...you know the default "Hello World" kind of front page.... Can I park it to see if it gets indexed? I doubt if parking will improve it's chances, as Google might not like to see parked pages, although some of my old domains that were never indexed for > 1 year, finally got indexed even though they were parked....I also notice from the stats, Google bot visiting, but it takes up 0.00 Mb of bandwidth, meaning...it turned away....
If the url is banned i would not redirect to it. They might never un bann the site. Stick with the other one.
i'd have to agree with rcj662. don't transfer your site to the banned domain unless your are absolutely sure that they have removed the ban. if you do transfer everything, then you'll basically disappear from the serp's, and lose all of your google traffic. i would continue to contact them about removing the ban. sometimes it takes a while to get google to move forward with something. if you really want to see if the domain will get indexed, then create another site on it. something small with relevant content, target a few long tail keywords to make it easy, shoot a couple backlinks at it and see what happens.
What I read in previous posts was that people had developed sites on a banned domain and Google accepted them back. So, basically, the best I can do is create a minisite with this banned domain? Can I use duplicate content, or article directory content, RSS feeds from Yahoo...etc, just to make a two page site? Thanks!
Well, think about it this way. Let's say you get that mini-site made, and you continue to ask Google to re-index that domain. Do you think they would lift the ban if they see your site using dup content and the rss feeds? They might, but you can probably increase your chances by actually creating something worthy for them to consider. How about creating a blog on it...use blogspot. I'm sure they'd be more inclined if they see you using a service that they own. Just a thought, but there are several ways you can go about this.
TopDraw, you said that the prevously banned site was already re-included once by Google, right? Even though the site was re-included once, the fact that it was banned by Google again (by the previous owners) does not bode well for your chances of having the domain name re-included again. If you really want to try and get the site "unbanned" again, send a written letter via registered mail (don't email them) explaining the situation, tell them what you plan to do with the domain name, and ask them what you'd have to do for them to consider including the domain name in their search results. It may not work, but I feel that it's the best chance you're going to have given the circumstances (assuming I'm correct, of course, which I admit freely that I may not be), unless you want to use another domain name to build your site with (as is your right).
No, it's an old domain that is not in the Google index, and I don't even know why. I'm guessing the previous owner did some keyword stuffing in the html code....that was one of the old fashioned spamming techniques? Other than that it does not seem to have been used for anything really bad, according to archive.org. It disappeared from Google sometime in 2004 or 2005 and never been in the index since (according to the archive machine). The reason I feel it's a better fit is because it has no hyphen, whereas my current site has a hyphen. Sure, hyphens are alright, but the site without hyphens will have at least a slight edge over one that does not. I would transfer my site over to this anytime and carry on from there, if not for the fact that unhyphened domain seems to be banned... When I wrote Google, they did respond very fast with their standard boilerplate reply, but I really don't know whether anything is really gonna happen beyond that, and it don't seem to be the case... Anyhow, what would be the right address to mail them for a physical letter? Thanks for any advice.
Out of curiousity, is the non hypened name getting any type in traffic? If not the only advantage is the age of the domain, if google re-indexes it I think they take into account the re-indexed date rather than the domain registration date so it's pretty pointless. If you are getting some type in traffic, then I dunno really. It depends on how much
As far as type in traffic goes, I doubt it is a lot, maybe something around 30-50 a month. The thing is, Google has this weird thing of indexing domain MONTHS later....maybe years later. Who knows? I don't want to run a full fledged site and then when suddenly Google decides to lift the ban, and it will be difficult and a pain to transfer everything to the other domain. Why can't they see that the owner has changed, and I have verified the site and everything....it's not rocket science to reinstate this domain right? Especially when there are loads of other sites out there that are real law breakers.... and these are fully indexed and ranked... In fact the former "site" it was on, was...as far as I can see....just a parked page. It was parked for years.