Can i 301 redirect a website that does not have manual penalty - but definetly affected by google

[isntworkdull]

ok, i have a website (website A) which has been running since 2008, done very nicely in search results, until january of this year... it dropped siginificantly, losing about two thirds of visitors etc... then in may basically lost the rest...

i was pulling my hair out for months trying to figure out why, i "think" it was something to do with links and anchor text, i got rid of old SEO company, got a new SEO company, they have done link analysis, trying to remove lots of links, have dissavowed about 500 domains... put in a reconsideration request... got a reply saying there is no manual penalty...

so new seo company says all they can do is carry on removing links, and wait for penguin to update and hopefully that will fix it... this will take as along as it takes penguin to update again...

obviously i can not wait indefinetely, so they have advised i start a new website (website B)... which is a complete duplicate of website A.

Now as we do not know whats wrong with website A - (we think its links - and will get them removed) my seo company said we cant do a 301 redirect, as we will just cause what ever is wrong to pass over to website B... so we need to create a blank page for every single page at website A, saying we have moved and put a NO FOLLOW link to the new page on website B....

Personally i think the above will look terrible, and not be a very user friendly experience - but my seo company says it is the only way to do it... before i do it, i just wanted to check with some experts here, if this is right?

please advise if 301 redirects are NOT correct way to do this.

thanks
James

[Kingof5]

301 is not the correct way to do this. A 301 will pass the penalty from the old domain to the new one.

Not sure about starting a new website that's a copy of the old one. I'd imagine Google would be smart enough to see the 2 domains were owned by the same person and have the same content so they may still hold you down in search results. And yes, putting a blank page saying you've moved without automatically redirecting visitors is a bad user experience.

[JakubMovic]

301 won't pass penalty. If it would work just as David said, I could 301 that domain to a competitor's domain and smash him down.

But David is right, this is not correct way. It's bad technique, sometimes working well but you never know when it will end and then you'll get hit.

For me the best what you can do is to take care of your backlink profile. If reconsideration request didn't help you must build stronger backling profile, take care of On Page SEO and OFF Page SEO and you will need time and patience.

I have had many situations like yours and it's always pain in the ass.

Ohh, one more thing. Take a look at your analytics and compare to the Google Update timeline. Then you will know what kind of creature caused this mess

If you have some more questions I'll try to help.

Thanks,
Jakub.

[Carson-Ward]

Algorithmic penalties like Panda and Penguin will be re-calculated on the refresh of the update. This is the reason you see conflicting answers on whether a 301 will pass the algorithmic penalty: it depends. It depends on a lot of variables that aren't really worth going into right now. The point is, IF your penalty is link-based, the penalty will almost definitely pass with a 301 redirect because the new site has no authority and no visibility.

If you haven't already, you'll want to make sure it's not something like Panda. It would be a shame to start over just to find that your UX and design were to blame all along. I've seen this happen several times because everyone just assumes it's the links.

Leaving both versions of the site will result in Google selecting one. They'll almost definitely select the original version of the site unless you take it down. You need to make the final decision: take the value of your current brand, domain, and legitimate links. Subtract that from the amount you think it will take to overcome the bad links either by removal or counter-balancing them with real links plus the opportunity cost of doing something else.

Starting over is generally the very last recourse, and I suggest it only if the are many links and the vast majority are heavy on the anchor text or clearly spam.