Hello All, My domain name is obliterated by Penguin / Unnatural Links, with NO hope, due to the sheer number of bad links. I want to move the same content over to a new domain name without 301 (because that would transfer over the penalties). Is there any benefit to doing the GWT "Change of Address" at this point (maybe to avoid duplicate content penalties). Would you guys recommend utilizing "Change of Address" for my case? Thanks, Dan
There are 3 options: 1. To use 301 redirct, so you will avoid duplicate content and transfer the penalties to the new domain. 2. To use "Change of address", so you will avoid duplicate content BUT I think that it also transfer the penalties to the new domain. 3. Delete all the content of the old domain and launch the new domain. This way for a time you're new domain will have duplicate content penalties, but when the old domain has expired, you're new domain will have no penalties. In any of the 3 options you'll lose something. I didn't see others options. Hope it helps.
If you think 301 redirect would pass the penalty to the new domain then change of address will also do the same. But as you said that your domain got penalized because of unnatural linking and not low quality content, you can do a 301 redirect to see what happens. I personally have got mixed results so I would suggest you to give it a try. Also, I don't recommend you to delete the old domain as someone can buy it and capitalize on it.
The easiest is 301 redirect, and I heard good reviews in forums, people are getting benefit from 301 redirect of penalized website, try doing this if it works then it is good otherwise you can transfer content to your new domain name.
i didnt take the chance of redirecting to new domain after reading up at warriorforum. so i built a site on the old domain with re-directing all content to index and removing the old domain from google webmaster tools. i didnt tell google i changed address. just added new domain. i did however make the site more unique content to the new domain. its been over 5 months now and fingers crossed its still going strong. fyi, i had no spam what so ever, still to this day i wonder if someone redirected a bad domain to my site to get rid of the competition. god knows. good luck.
It would be good if you start with new domain name and deactivate your old site. Publish the same content on your new domain name because your new domain name is not penalized.