I bought a domain name that was about to expire from the owner by contacting him though the whois - but it appears that he did something shady in the past with the domain name and I cannot get it indexed in google. I've had the site up now for 4 months, plenty of unique articles, I'm ranked #3 in Bing, and I'm not even indexed in Google. I've submitted site map, built plenty of quality backlinks, I've done everything I can think of. What can I do? What are my options? Is is possible to get re-indexed in google now that I'm the new owner?
I had the same issue and contacted Google through Google webmaster tools for reconsideration. They got back to me within 2 weeks and told me that they would review my request. I waited a few months but nothing changed I was still not indexed on Google, so I gave up looking thinking they rejected me but just last week I noticed my domain name finally got indexed. It took about 4 months though. You need to explain to them clearly what your plans are for the site and that you have never used any spamming or black hat techniques. Good Luck! also you might want to search the domain name here http://web.archive.org/ find out what the domain name was previously used for.
That happened to me once, but Google never re-indexed the domain even though I am a completely new domain owner.
You got the domain good.. Do the following get some quality content on the site, register at Google webmaster tool and submit the site for reconsideration. ( Explain you have brought this domain ). that should work. and your site should be in google index within 2 to 3 weeks.
Did you buy this on Flippa? I hope you really left some negative feedback about that seller if so. Man that would burn my a$$ if that happened to me.
Did not buy on flippa. I bought from a guy I found in whois. Do you guys know how to tell if a domain name is deindexed before you buy it? I was told that the Page Rank bar on firefox will be grey if it is deindexed and it will be white if it is not. I tested this and it looks like it is true.
If it is just a domain and no sites, it is very hard to tell if it was deindexed before. The seller has to be honest or else...
Ah sorry to hear that. Have you tried searching this in google: site:yourdomain.com that's how you know if you are indexed or not for sure. If not, after 4 months and links going to your site, I think the ony way is to get on webmaster tools and submit it. Takes a little while but it should work. Doesn't take THAT long though, couple of months at most I would say.