Spider 404 errors linked to purchased domain

[bjalc2011]

Hi,

My client purchased a domain which based on the seller "promising lots of traffic". Subsequent investigation showed it was a scam and that the seller had been creative in Photoshop with some GA reports.

Nevertheless, my client had redirected the acquired domain to their primary domain (via the domain registrar).

From the period on which the acquired domain was redirected to the point when we removed the redirect, the web log files had a high volume of spider/bot 404 errors relating to an online pharmaacy - viagra, pills etc.

The account does not seem to have been hacked. No additional files are present and the rest of the logs seem normal. As soon as the redirect was removed the spider 404 errors stopped.

Aside from the advice about acquiring domains promising traffic which I've already discussed with my client, does anybody have any ideas about how a redirect could cause the 404 errors?

Thanks

[stevenmusumeche]

Hard to say, I doubt you would be penalized for only incoming links if your site is clean. But you may always have that history. You could add the site to webmaster tools and submit a reinclusion request explaining the situation. They maybe be able to "wipe the slate clean" for you.

[bjalc2011]

Hi Steve, Many thanks for replying.

I checked the acquired domain in OSE and there are 302 redirects from an online pharmacy (that according to the wayback machine existed back in 2009) to pharmacy pages on the acquired domain. In turn OSE shows the linking site has a single link from a dodgy looking russian site called picto.ru. So, I guess the spiders are simply following the links.

Assuming my client wants to use the acquired domain will they get penalised for the existing spammy links?

[stevenmusumeche]

The purchased domain used to have those pages, and when you redirected it, the engines were looking for them on your domain.