One of my directories PR was dropped a while ago due to Google not liking selling text links, etc..... I decided to test something out to fix it.. here is explanation of what i have done. let me know what you think
You said some friends have fixed their penalty like this, can you give examples? Did you change anything else?
the guy that i know did the same thing with his website (not directory though). His PR didn't come back right away but he could build the PR back up in less than two updates.
I am not so sure I would call that method recovering from a pr drop - This method looks like either a method of just throwing in the towel and starting over or an attempt to trick google by having them think it is a different site.
yes sort of... but if it gets the ranking back up why not? perhaps learn from our lesson and dont make the same mistakes in the new domain.
I was always going to try this when Zorg Links was penalised but always wanted to see if the penalty was removed so never tried it. Have you redirected all inner pages to their respective inner pages? Or just a mass redirect to the new homepage? Will be interesting...
no i didnt redirect all the pages. Just a mass redirect. to answer another comment, I'm not using this to fool Google (or at least thats not my intention) as Google already knows that the redirect is from the dropped domain... however I think of it as a new website that will comply with Google policies and since the old website doesnt rank in SEs anymore, I am only redirecting my returning traffic to the new site, not any rankings.
So can you explain the technical aspect of this a little clearer, where do you set this redirect and what is the difference from just copying all content from one site to a new site with a completely different domain name, is using a different tld of the same name intended to rescue any brand recognition?
IMHO its a bad idea redirecting a domain which has been penalized in google. If it was dropped from google how much traffic is the old domain getting?
the old domain is getting a good couple thousand uinques a month. This is mainly a test for me. It might just be better to start the new domain without redirecting... I will post in about a month as how the test had gone.
I've thought about doing this with one of my directories but figured that eventually Google would realize what I'd done and just flag the new domain with the same penalty. Keep us updated on how it works for you though.
a short update: the new .net directory ranks fine for Nima directory with over 500 pages listed on Google.
Well the system you did, is/was one of the main reasons why directories were penalized. Re-directing domains does result in google killing your directory. You may want to read jeff's (aviva) post on why he was put into penalty n how he came out of it.
Does redirecting one domain to another really help your PR back up? It means that your current domain has now moved and is no more doesn't it?
yup.... that's right. You indicate search engines to now redirect itself to your new domain. Regarding PR backup, I don't agree. PR maybe good once, but if something wrong has happened n is happening with the new domain by its owner, Google will again shower its blessings on the domain.
Well, You probably have more pr0-pr1-pr2 link than pr3-pr4-pr5-pr6. More you have low pr linked to your site more you get back. More you have high pr linked to your site more you go up! Good Luck.