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    4. 7 years old domain sandboxed for 8 months, wait or make a domain change?

    7 years old domain sandboxed for 8 months, wait or make a domain change?

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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    • Ferray
      Ferray @Ferray last edited by

      doesn't penalized domain loses its PR? as our domain still has PR4...

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • AlanMosley
        AlanMosley @Ferray last edited by

        How do you know it is penalized?

        Did they notify you?

        Have you asked for reconsideration?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • AlanMosley
          AlanMosley @Ferray last edited by

          So do i understand you have already asked for reconsideration?

          I have reason to believe that if you 301 your links, bad news wont follow you, but that is just my opinon I have no way of proving it, just a exprience I had, I could be completely wrong.

          My thinking is that your bad links have been discouned already, your domain has ben punished, your 301 will not get credit for bad links only the good ones.

          Changing is always a headache, but if you dont you will always wonder if you ae doing as well as you should.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Ferray
            Ferray @Ferray last edited by

            • All links dropped to position 200+
            • Received notification from them: "notice of unnatural links to website"
            • and yes,  sent reconsideration to them, didn't work out.

            If anyone can write a reconsideration email, which makes G people cry, I would pay for that 😉

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Ferray
              Ferray @Ferray last edited by

              yes, asked for reconsideration already, few times actually, that didnt work, and as I said if anyone knows how write a reconsideration email, which  will make G people cry, I would pay for that 😉

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Jinx14678
                Jinx14678 @Ferray last edited by

                I think Alan's theory is correct, but of course in theory 🙂

                I would think as well that the bad links would not pass anything as he says they have already been discounted by G.

                It appears you really do not have a choice.... And have little to loose with attempting the 301 as described, as you are already penalized.

                At least if you do.... POSSIBLY the Good will follow, and the bad stay behind, but I am not sure if this is how it works though, but seems plausible. Also I believe penalties "drop off" after a while (1 - 2 years) as the "unnatural links" themselves will eventually drop off of G's index altogether.... Which will possibly drop the penalty.

                Personally i would have a "Post 301 Strategy" in place to begin a link building campaign to this new URL that is high quality and informational in nature utilizing social signals heavily (BUT ETHICALLY 🙂 ) and even stay away from White hat for a while as well until you establish a new "reputation" for yourself.

                w00t!

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • NewGlobalVentures.comSEOTexas
                  NewGlobalVentures.comSEOTexas @Ferray last edited by

                  Try to run opensiteexplorer here on seomoz.

                  This will expose your backlinks. Additionally, you may also want to try virante.com.

                  We just found out that we had some bad IP's on a shared server, so we decided to pay the difference for a brand spankin' new dedicated server.

                  Hope this helps and good luck Ferray!

                  😄

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • Ferray
                    Ferray @Ferray last edited by

                    Thanks...

                    it will be hard to find those bad links with this info:

                    | Page Authority | Domain Authority | Linking Root Domains | Total Links |
                    |
                    |
                    |
                    |
                    | 78/100 | 74/100 | 2,250 | 17,366 |
                    |
                    |
                    |
                    |

                    I look up to page 180.... Any ideas if a link from page authority of "1" is "bad" link?

                    P.S. but it might be a good idea for guys at seomoz to implement some tool that will show those bad links... I think they can do this by looking for same sources of links for penalized domains....

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • Jinx14678
                      Jinx14678 @Ferray last edited by

                      Recently i remember Rand Talking in a white board Friday that the OSE Algo does not account for any spam metrics that Google does, it does gives a Trust ranking metric based on best practices and . The trust metric may be a good metric to look at.

                      I look up to page 180.... Any ideas if a link from page authority of "1" is "bad" link?

                      Not necessarily.... a 1 just means it has not been indexed by OSE i believe.

                      Also I am not sure that "Unnatural Links" automatically equates to a penalized domain link, it may just simply mean you got to many links from too many sources in too short of a time that could only be achieved by automation....

                      So looking for "penalized" domains could be a wild goose chase. I think you are in a pretty tough spot. The best course of action could be just wait longer and see if the penalty passes as links fall off that are "suspect"

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Jinx14678
                        Jinx14678 last edited by

                        Also you can look at this as it is on this subject:

                        http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/getting-back-from-a-penalty-second-time-around

                        It took a very methodical approach to a reconsideration which i am sure Google appreciated, as cheesy as this might sound..... We all make mistakes, but it is if we learn from those mistakes that Google seems to care about..

                        Ferray 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Dr-Pete
                          Dr-Pete last edited by

                          Unfortunately, there's no easy answer. I agree with Zsolt that this isn't a "sandbox" issue - it sounds like a classic (and severe) link-based penalty. The 301 can work, but it's not risk-free. Usually, you'll retain some of the link-juice and not carry the penalty, but the penalty does transfer in some situations. There's no good way to tell when and if it will.

                          I'm afraid you're right on reconsideration - you'd have to cut the vast majority of the bad links, and that's going to be very tricky. Your only other option, if the bad links are generally low-quality links (spammy article marketing, for example, as opposed to paid links), is to build strong, relevant links going forward and let the bad links fade out over time. That depends a lot on the severity and type of bad links, though.

                          If you've been waiting for things to change for 8 months and building decent links in that time, the 301 may be your best recourse. It's a bit of a last resort and it's not guaranteed to work, but it sounds like you may need to try it.

                          Ferray 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Ferray
                            Ferray @Dr-Pete last edited by

                            Thanks, Sorry, it took me sometime to reply, I left on 16 and ust came back from abroad...

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • Ferray
                              Ferray @Jinx14678 last edited by

                              Thanks! Interesting article.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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