Reinclusion possible?

For a site I'm looking at purchasing

[zCat]

A while back I decided to put up a subdomain site on a subject I can write about with great ease and which also should be monetizable given enough content and traffic. While researching material I came across a similar site which is up for sale, looks like it would be a great way of jumpstarting my site if I can get hold of it. The site has a PR6 homepage and has been around six or seven years with some decent backlinks and is generally quite solid and respectable, if a little dated.

Today I was planning to contact the owner, and did a few checks on the site to make sure I hadn't overlooked anything, and to my surprise discovered it had completely vanished from Google (neither site: command nor search on unique strings from text on the site produce any results).

Looking into it further, it seems the site's SEO was probably state-of-the-art around 2001; the major sin is a paragraph of hidden text (font color same as background color; both values defined directly in the relevant HTML tags) on the front page, which I presume is what triggered the removal from Google. Apart from that there's nothing really dodgy though.

If I were to get hold of this site (only at a hefty discount given it's lack of Google ranking though), and give it a major reworking for SEO, making it squeaky clean etc., what are the chances that a reinclusion request would have any chance of success?

[Adam_Lasnik]

Hi zCat,

We don't want people to avoid doing good things with "used" domains.

So I'd grab the domain you have your eye on, clean up what needs to be cleaned up, and then -- given that you have reason to believe that the domain previously violated Google's Webmaster Guidelines -- go ahead and file a reinclusion request.

[zCat]

Hi Adam,

thanks for the reply. It's encouraging to get this kind of feedback. Apart from that one block of text [ * ], it's a perfectly fine site which, although a little dated, doesn't deserve a ban.

[ * ] No doubt I'll never get confirmation on this, but if I was writing a black hat SEO detection algorithm, that would be an easy target to detect.

[sudden]

One of our clients successfully did just the same - before he became our client, that is. :)

Same sin as the web site in question, and he got reincluded after a few weeks, now ranking #12 for his main keyword. And if things donīt work out, you could still use the content you paid for on your domain.

[Quadrille]

I'd go for it - but do be extremely careful.

The remedy may be as simple as it looks - but it may be much more complicated.

Relistings are expensive for Google, and they will not be keen to re-look if you ask too soon, so be absolutely sure the site is squeeky clean before asking for resubmission.

Good Luck :)

[ibpotter]

How does one file a reinclusion request?

[oaktown]

ibpotter,

Without trying to be a wiseguy..."Google "reinclusion request". The #1 or #2 listing should take you to Matt Cutts' answer. Good luck! It sometimes works.

[ibpotter]

Thanks for not being af wiseguy ;) Oaktown - but thanks...