Domain change after over optimisation

[gamnaking1]

Hi Guys,

Wanted to get some second opinions. I have a client who worked with someone on their SEO for about 15months, during which time they reaped the benefits of being top of Googles organic rankings for their main keyword. Unfortunately, the link building that was completed was terrible with no care taken for future updates, over optimised anchor text links on totally irrelevant websites.

Contacting webmasters in order for links to be taken down was an impossible task, these websites were pure spam sites which I doubt anyone oversees with any care. So went the disavow route, it caused a slight increase, but the way Google indexes the website and its pages is still all over the place.

We have a good new content marketing plan in place for the next 12 months, and already have some great in depth articles, videos and interactive infographics created, but the problem is my client really needs some quick wins and cannot risk the domain never recovering fully from the issues.

They own the .com version of the .co.uk they have so my thoughts at this point are to move them to the .com, and the new content strategy can be worked on as if its a new project. For the keywords they target there are sites on the 1st and 2nd page with DA of 16-18, so it wont take long with the new content we have to get them back to a level playing field with the competition. The one worry I do have is Google seeing the .co.uk go down, and the .com appear with the same website on and looking down on the "start from scratch" method.... does anyone know of any examples when they have acted on this?

We started an AdWords account (very small spend) and this has been going to the .co.uk, if we start a new one, with same billing info going to the .com could that also cause problems?

So basically, because of my clients situation, and the level the competition is it, moving to the .com seems like the best move, its just whether there is any risk involved. I've never read of there being any, but thought I'd get some opinions before comitting to it.

By the way, I'm only seeing this as a feasible option as they can still keep branded traffic due to buying both domains at the same time.

Thanks in advance.

[MaryBowling]

Kevin, There was some recent chatter http://www.seroundtable.com/google-penalty-site-move-18163.html about how penalties can follow a site even if the original (penalized) site is NOT 301 redirected to the new URL. Unless you are sure the hit that site got was all about bad links and not at all about on-page over-optimization, I'd make sure the content on the new dotcom domain was fresh.

[gamnaking1]

Hi Mary,

thanks for the response.

We created a new site with new content on the .co.uk at the same time as the disavow. So are you saying its now not safe to use this design/content on the .com?

Im 100% sure there was no on page optimisation penalty, as the old website natural content infact it was hardly optimized at all. They ranked purely on anchor text back links, the level was ridiculous it was around 80% for keyword terms and the rest a mix of generic and branded anchors.

It seems in hindsight the new website design would have been best saved for moving across to the .com, but obviously that is now no longer an option.

**EDIT: Can I also add the .com will be hosted on a totally new IP address **

[JaneCopland]

Hi Kevin,

It's inconclusive how careful you have to be when starting afresh after an irreparable spam penalty - also, while I understand that the client needs to see results, I have anecdotal evidence of horrific backlink spam being resolved and penalties being lifted - my former agency worked on a site last year with a backlink profile full of thousands of bad links. Literally thousands had to be removed or disavowed. It took about six or seven months to fix, unfortunately, but the penalty was lifted earlier this year after the biggest link take-down project I have ever seen.

However, if you simply cannot fix this, I would go with the .com. Penalties certainly regularly pass through redirects, and I would not be confident that other forms of redirection like 302s and meta refreshes wouldn't count in this case too. Even without a redirect, what Mary says about penalties following brands is feasible since it's not going to be a secret to Google that this is the same business on a new domain name.

One thing is certainly true: starting with the new domain is the only way to go if the client cannot commit to a lengthy take-down process. Have another look at whether you have exhausted the disavowal process though... there might be more to get out of that route before you ditch the domain completely. Disavowal is meant to help in situations like this, but it's also true that the team there can be very difficult to get a positive response out of, even when you have done your best to remove the links and are demonstrating that you can't do more.

Cheers,

Jane