Reconsideration requests - anyone with experience?

[rrussell]

I bought a domain from aftermarket auctions recently that is giving me some fits.

The site has ~1,000 authentic links from .edu/.gov sites, plus a couple thousand other strong links. We're not talking blog spam stuff, these are legitimate links from a previous life.

It looks like the previous owners had 301'd it to a new URL when the organization changed names.

I figured this would be a great URL for me -- and it shares a name that is appropriate for my new use.

Not so fast.

After publishing content, i noticed it wasn't indexing my new site. Strange. I've also had some link campaigns started. Nothing shady or even 'greyhat.' After getting in and submitting a sitemap to try force-feeding google, I see this at the top of my webmaster tools:

"Pages on your site may not appear in Google search results pages due to violations of the Google webmaster guidelines. Please review our webmaster guidelines and modify your site so that it meets those guidelines. Once your site meets our guidelines, you can request reconsideration and we'll evaluate your site"

I also see this:
"Googlebot last successfully accessed your home page on Apr 27, 2008."

at the same time site:domain.com shows 0 results.

I submitted a reinclusion(oh wait, it's reconsideration now) request almost two weeks ago and haven't had any luck. I'm about 5 weeks in since buying the domain, and i'm just baffled as to why I'm not indexed on this url.

Considering what the site was previously(a nonprofit org) and the strong backlinks, I have a hard time believing they did anything too horrible to deserve being de-indexed.

Does anyone have experience with getting sites re-included in the index? If so, how long did it take? How long should I wait before submitting another reconsideration request?

Does anyone know if there are special code words like spam/paid link submissions to help get a pair of human eyes on it?

[soxos]

Google picks up on changes in the whois and thinks you are buying ready made 'PR'

They have in the past said they "re-set" domains that change whois, maybe they are getting tougher and actually putting a penatly on. Ouch.

[tedster]

In this case, it sounds like there was some past hanky-panky that was NOT reset. Even not-for-profits can hire employees or contractors who try to get away with violations of Google guidelines.

A little more patience would probably be wise - unless you failed to describe the complete situation in your first request.

[Alex70]

<<It looks like the previous owners had 301'd it to a new URL>> I would try and do the same

[rrussell]

soxos -- i don't think that's the case. We buy domains regularly -- and this one is definitely an exception to the rule.

tedster -- i think i outlined everything that I'm aware of on the domain. How long would you wait before you submit another reconsideration request?

Do you know of any catch words to include in the request that may help get actual eyeballs on it?

alex70 -- it's a LLL.org domain -- and really is a legitimate acronym for us... really want to avoid having to 301 it.

[tedster]

I would wait until 4 weeks have passed - but during that time, it will really help if you collect new "top shelf" links and publish some more solid content.

Also, see if there is anything you can discover about past problems that you might be able to straighten out. That kind of action, reported in a reconsideration request, usually goes a long way.

Catch words will not gain eyeballs from Google as far as I know - every submission gets at least one human reading.

[SEOPTI]

Yes, my experience is they removed my reconsid. requests after about 8 weeks without a note, don't waste your time, this is a bogus tool.
They don't even have the staff to answer all the requests, I'm not sure why they set up this kind of bogus tools, maybe to tell the press, hey we are better than all the rest?

[edited by: SEOPTI at 12:28 am (utc) on May 7, 2008]

[Robert Charlton]

...it's a LLL.org domain...

I would not be surprised if Google watches these more carefully than it might watch other types of domain transfers. You might want to check the Wayback Machine to see how this domain was used in a past life.

Way back, prior to the Florida update, I had noticed a number of dot orgs that were dominating some commercial niches. Clearly Google was on to these, and they disappeared somewhere in all the Florida update turmoil.

In the years since, I've not noticed these coming back, which isn't to say the trick doesn't sometimes still work. Is it possible that this domain may have been one of those?

[rrussell]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Robert -- what you are saying makes sense. From what I can tell the organization renamed in early 2004 and they had a placeholder page with a meta redirect instead of a real 301 for 3.5-4 years... then the domain finally expired early this year. Never fully dropped, but something in there set off a flag for google if it wasn't already.

I'm still curious as to whether it was before or after the whois change that they decided to blacklist it. Not sure if there's a definitive way to tell...

I guess I'll just keep publishing content, build as good of links as I can in my niche and cross my fingers.

It really is frustrating when you feel like you're one of the good guys and are trapped. Over the past decade, I've seen some sites of mine drop out for good reasons... to google's credit, this is the first time where I feel like i'm an innocent victim out of over a hundred domains I've worked on. That's still a pretty solid track record on google's part if you ask me.

I'm sure in time this will get relisted -- it's just frustrating in the meantime not to be able to expedite it more.