How long a domain's bad reputation last?
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I catched a dropped domain with a nice keyword, but poor reputation. It used to have some malware on the site and WOT (site review tool available at Chrome among others) has very negative reviews tied to the site. I guess that Google has to have records about that as well, because Chrome used to prompt a warning when I entered the site. My question is: how long will the bad reputation last if I build a legitimate website there?
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Just post on google's forums stating the new date of purchase, you checked and removed all the bad stuff, etc etc.
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What kind of documentation I can keep? Is it not enough that the date of registration is after the wrongdoings of the site?
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It's a tough one to answer with any certainty - I have done reconsideration requests that have been granted in a few weeks - other times it has taken twice as long.
If Google clear it, it is, for all intents and purposes, cleared of any wrongdoing in Google's eyes, but I can't tell you if they keep an eye on it or not.
As Russ said, have some documentation at hand so that you can show them you are the new owner to help fight your corner.
And yes, look at all possible angles, including the one where the good name has a black mark next to it.
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How long such consideration might take? Does it clear the name entirely or does something stick to it anyway? Should I take into account a scneario where it doesn't get it's good name back (taking that I run a legitimate website)?
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Have some documentation available to prove that the domain dropped and that you are a different owner. People regularly tell google that they "just bought this website and had no idea that it had problems blah blah blah". They are going to want some evidence.
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it is down to Google as to how long they would consider it a problem, but the thing to do here is to request a reconsideration of your site.
This is done through your webmaster tools and gives you a chance to tell Google what you have done.
Bad reputation caused by the site in the past can only be rectified by doing some reputation management
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