Acquiring a blog

[madegood]

Hello All,

I've recently acquired somebody else's blog and have redirected every post to the relevant page of my website (madegood.org). The content is the same as on the original site, and I have used 301 redirects. The original blog didn't have a particularly high page rank

I'm slightly worried that there are now thousands of links coming from one domain, which itself doesn't have much authority. Is there a way that I can tell google that I've acquired the blog, as opposed to just having lots of links from one domain.

Thanks

Will

[madegood]

Hey thanks!

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Couple of good resources I can recommend:

1. How to find low value Links: http://www.stateofsearch.com/step-by-step-guide-finding-low-quality-links/

2. Link Detox: http://www.linkdetox.com/  

If using an automated system like Link Detox, be sure to review each link manually.

[KeriMorgret]

Charles, saying that "Google will penalize you" for doing something is a fairly strong statement. Can you point to your source on this subject? It's helpful to give additional information in cases like this.

[madegood]

Although, what am I looking for with regards to dodgy backlinks? What are the tell tale signs?

I'd be happy to go through my backlinks in WMT and check each one, but not entirely sure what I'm looking for. I know all the theory behind good backlinks, but it all seems a bit wooly when it come to bad links, is there an easy way to spot sure fire offenders. Then when I find one, what can I do about it?

Cheers

Will

[madegood]

Will do!

[Cyrus-Shepard]

I'd start by checking your backlinks, both to your domain and the one you redirected. After that, expand your investigation from there.

[madegood]

Thanks Cyrus, that's a very comprehensive answer!

I basically uploaded the copy on to new pages on my site, and manually put a 301 every page of  the old site to the page on my site that has the same copy.... If that makes sense!?

I'm only concerned because I've suddenly (over the last couple of days) seen a hit in my google search referrals by about 70%. This migration happened months ago but I'm trying look under every stone.

I'll do as you suggested and see how I get on. Thanks again.

Will

[Cyrus-Shepard]

It sounds like basically you did a domain migration? I'm a bit confused because you said you redirected to relevant pages on your website, but you also said the content is the same. So I'm wondering if you redirected to existing pages on your own site, or simply redirect the old URLs over to new URLs with the content from the old site. (Yeah, it doesn't make sense, but I'm on my first cup of coffee)

Generally, a large amount of redirects won't hurt you if it's for a legitimate reason - especially if you're migrating content from one domain to another. Where you get in trouble is when you 301 redirect URLs with low-quality backlinks. Those links then become YOUR links.

It might also look suspicious if you redirected multiple domains in a short period of time to your new domain, but this doesn't sound like the case.

Regardless, the best way to handle this is to claim ownership of both sites in Google Webmaster Tools before the redirect, then file a change of address for the old domain. You can actually still do this after the fact - you simply need to stop the 301 for the homepage long enough to claim ownership.

You likely want to file sitemaps for both the old URLs and new URLs so search engines can "process" the 301s. You can find more helpful tips here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/web-site-migration-guide-tips-for-seos

I wouldn't expect this to effect your traffic in a negative way or cause a penalty, but keep an eye on your traffic and rankings just in case. If anything does go wrong, you can revert the changes you made.

Hope this helps! Best of luck with your SEO.

Cyrus