I have a penalized site and don't know what the cause is

[VisualSense]

I have a site which appears to have a Google indexation penalty. According to Google because its violating the T/Cs.

Here are some background details about the site:

The site is a online poker + deposit methods related site on a .co.uk TLD. It has 30+ uniquely written pages, and no advertising at the moment.

In June of 2010, June 10 to be precisely, I bought this site from a fellow webmaster/affiliate. After the site 's ownership changed I tried accessing the server, but I couldn't log into it . I noticed that this host had serious problems and the IP was unreachable. After trying for some time the previous owner got me all the content in Word files and I created a new hosting account and re-launched the site on June 28.

Between a couple of days after June 10 and June 28, the site was unreachable, and completely de-indexed from Google.

When I re-launched the site, I used the default Wordpress Template Twenty Ten, and created new pages with the Word files I received from the previous owner.

I waited a bit, but noticed the site didn't get re-indexed. So on August 18th I moved the content of domain xxx.com to yyy.co.uk/xxx/ and 301-ed all the former locations, hoping that this might help yyy.co.uk get indexed..... but nothing.

On October 28 of 2010 I submitted my first reconsideration request, which was processed on November 17th without any change. At that time Google didn't say if anything was wrong like now, so I just waited... and waited... and waited some more.

At some point I was ready to let this one go, as I didn't/don't see any problems with it. In fact, it used to be indexed before.

By now, I removed all links pointing to it that I had control off, and there are hardly any left over. The site as well doesn't have any outgoing links left, so that can't be it either. I also removed a kind-a duplicate keyword heavy menu from the sidebar, as well as the widgets from the footer. Finally I also fixed a problem caused by Yoast Wordpress SEO Plugin, but I only installed this plugin recently, so that could not be the problem that caused the penalty.

So after another reconsideration request Google again let me know this site still has issues, but I really have no clue which, or how to find out. I don't feel like doing any work on this site, as there is no guarantee that it will ever lose its penalty.

What should I do now?

[RyanKent]

The summary is you bought a site which had problems with Google. You addressed some of the issues, but clearly there are issues which remain.

Did Google offer any other details other then the site violates their T&Cs?

Do you have any idea what the problem could be?

What is the site URL? We need to be able to see the site to determine if there are any apparent issues.

The bottom line, you need to correct any issues, then submit another reconsideration request. You will need to explain to Google that you purchased the site and have been trying to clean it up.

[VisualSense]

Thanks for your reply.

When I bought the site, before the down period, it didn't have any issues and all content was still indexed.

Unfortunately, Google didn't say anything about it. I get the awkward feeling the reviewer in question might have a personal problem with the specific niche being online poker.

The site's URL is depositpoker.co.uk - I used the default Wordpress template to avoid any possible issues, but that doesn't mean I don't have the intention to use a nicer one, once the site gets indexed

On every re inclusion attempt I explained exactly what I did and tried to address everything that could have been wrong. Now, it's just content, but I am left clueless why they don't allow it back in the SERPs.

I have one site pages, just being there to age domains, which have no problem getting indexed. So I don't see why this one is.

[StalkerB]

Firstly let me congratulate you on choosing such an excellent poker room to promote Our promos are a bit out of date though you'll want to get the Summer Gifts up as players generally like it and can usually get something from it

Task in hand though... Hard to tell, you're obviously not indexed, but couldn't tell you why just by looking.

Add webmaster tools to your site as it will often tell you why you have received a penalty.

It could be you'll just have to keep submitting reinclusion requests until you get someone sympathetic. You don't seem to be doing anything wrong (no adsense on the site, nothing dodgy in the code... that I can see). If you had malware on your old host it could be getting held against you, but unless Google tells you what's wrong...

Maybe they just don't like you using Piwik's analytics over theirs!

[VisualSense]

Uhm, do you know of a way of requesting for a re inclusion outside of Webmaster Tools?

[StalkerB]

Nope, but WMT has a diagnostic section that would tell you if Google thought you had anything bad on your site or maybe give you a little clue as to why you were excluded.

I assume your reluctance stems from some other Google Account infraction that you've not mentioned?

[VisualSense]

Was a bit sarcastic with my answer but yeah the site is added to WMT and nothing funky to discover that explains the penalty.