Comments on: Dear +John Mueller

By: Scott Harris

Scott Harris — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:38:07 +0000

There is no possibility of really discerning that any potential/possible/existant domain name has any kind of history, good or bad. It's not like Google publishes any kind of records re: Pandalized, Penguined, outright-banned-for-egregious-obscenity, copyright infringements or many other aspects of this growing problem. And when it comes to what's behind this kind of query, Google's legendary opacity is the primary problem. Google also holds the keys to resolving the problem. In many respects, they do a disservice to the web-at-large in not resolving the problem. Their stance is certainly harmful to many legitimate businesses operating/wanting-to-operate on the web. In that respect, they have a bit of a stranglehold on future development… perhaps they'll deal with it in a positive manner when they realize how much money isn't flowing through AdWords because of that lack of positive resolution…

By: Richard Hearne

Richard Hearne — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:15:50 +0000

Sadly there's no manual penalty, so a reconsideration request can't get by
that filter to be seen by a human. But thanks for the advice.

By: Kevin Oedekoven

Kevin Oedekoven — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:15:45 +0000

Why not be proactive and immediately submit a reconsideration request with supporting documentation demonstrating the change of ownership while also disavowing all the current backlinks?

By: Richard Hearne

Richard Hearne — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:01:37 +0000

Thanks John. You said you didn't have a generic answer for that, and without pulling punches what you've given isn't helpful.
They have done their due diligence, and their only concern is impact with Google. All other concerns are irrelevant from my POV.

I think as time goes by this issue will only hurt more innocent people, and it's a shame that Google has no official stance on this problem, or at least one that is public. In fact I'd go so far as to say it's shameful being honest.

I appreciate the conditions you work under John, so there's nothing personal in my response above.

By: John Mueller

John Mueller — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:48:37 +0000

I don't have any generic answer for this, Richard.

In general, if you start with a domain name that has a bad history, it's likely that you'll end up spending time & resources to get back to something reasonable (regardless of - and also specifically for - Google's side of things).

By: Richard Hearne

Richard Hearne — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 09:13:00 +0000

Thanks Rob.

It's kinda funny that I can never find that info when I search on G+

By: Rob Maas

Rob Maas — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 09:10:19 +0000

Next Hang-out: https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/crmhd1334r2250btrn9vn0irhmk