When good domain names go bad
-
We have created a website to distribute a niche product. About a year ago, another vendor decided to drop the product and did not renew their domain name. We tried to acquire the domain name, but a cyber squatter picked it up. The old domain name had a few decent back links, and there was probably some value to us with a 301, but the cyber squatter was asking $8,000 and we didn't even bother countering such an absurd figure.
The old domain continued to rank reasonably well for one or our search terms, even though it was just one page of spammy links. Well, this week it appears that Google Panda may have finally killed it off. Which brings me to a couple of questions.
1. In addition to a simple Google search, is there a way to determine if Google has killed a domain?
2. Assuming that Google has indeed killed the domain, is there any value in trying to 301 the domain should it ever be released?
Best,
Christopher -
Your 1st question:
Go to www.google.com and type in the domain name, with and without the "www." For example, search for "www.domain.com" and then search for "domain.com" (without using quotes around the domain name). If the domain shows up in the search results then it is not banned in Google.
To investigate a domain further at Google, see what Google returns when you perform a site: search at Google. For example, if you go to Google and search for "site:www.domain.com" and then "site:domain.com" and Google comes back with "Your search - site:www.domain.com - did not match any documents," the site most likely is banned at Google.
Your 2nd question:
Was best answered below. Do not associate with any sites that have been determine to be spam, been penalized or even banned from Google.
-
I don't know about your first question, but if Google does penalize/blacklist a domain, it will likely be toxic for a long time afterward. In my opinion, there isn't any value to associating yourself with a domain determined to be spam. It seems risky.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is there enough national traffic to go after for this niche
Hello, For bobweikel.com my niche is hypnosis and weight loss. Most of the traffic is for local terms. Would you consider it useful to go after national traffic in an effort to gain phone clients (long distance) or do you think too many of the terms are going to be served up locally. The local traffic in my area for hypnosis, weight loss, and hypnosis & weight loss are real slow. Looking for strategies (including content strategies) to bring in national clients. Thanks.
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
Finding a good guest posting service
I'm looking for any recommendations for a high-quality guest posting service that isn't posting to placing articles on their own network of websites, but instead has relationships with blog owners who will take good quality guest posts. And I'm willing to pay up for high-quality sites. Thanks for any suggestions, including suggestions on how to find these services if you don't want to say any names.
Link Building | | bizzer0 -
How to increase domain authority
How do I increase my Domain Authority and Page Authority? How do I increase my external links numbers? Regards, Nilesh
Link Building | | vedantcreations0 -
I have 87,636 links to my website from a single domain, is this bad?
Hi guys I have 87,636 links from one website, of which 75,189 of those link to my homepage using my website name as the anchor. Another has 29,811 links back to my website, again the majority of the links using my website name as the anchor. Is this a bad thing? Let me explain how this has happened - a company by the name of Daylife uses our RSS feed and distributes this to hundreds of their clients, which include indiatimes, usatoday, dallasnews etc, now I noticed that the majority of these websites all link back to our website with the same anchor text used several times on a single page. Attached is an example. Would this be a bad thing seen as the majority of these links have the same anchor text and link to my homepage? Looking at my GWT there is an estimated 183,373 backlinks that are all like this. Our traffic has dropped since Mr Panda hit and I am trying to find out if this could be adding to the problem. Thank you for you time links.jpg
Link Building | | hstdigital0 -
Publish content on current domain for content boost or new domain for links?
I have about 1000 unique and organically generated articles. My quote compare business has had briefs submitted by clients for over two years. The content has only been accessible to registered members. I want to polish it ASAP. Is it better to publish the content on the existing website in a sub folder or set up a new website to publish the content and have every article link back to the main website? Content is around 300 words x 1000.
Link Building | | designquotes0 -
Are backlinks to a domain that redirects useless?
I am working on trying to get backlinks. We are currently redirecting a few Domains to our current domain name. One of the Domains that is redirecting is the main Domain, we will be advertising in the near future. Can I send backlinks to the redirected URL or does it only carry link juice if it is to the main Domain?
Link Building | | hfranz0 -
Can link juice be passed in an iframe from domain A to domain B
Need to give our web partners our booking form which must be loaded in an iframe calling back to our domain. Is it possible to pass any link juice from their domain loading our iframe back to us. Was thinking of a "Powered by" text link in the form footer, but I'm guessing the link needs to be outside the iframe. Would love to hear any thoughts or workarounds on this.
Link Building | | apolloseo1