Change of address bug - can't withdraw request

[jhonatan1995]

I am trying to withdraw a change of address on a domain (domain.com), however when I try to do it says my request is invalid and that there is no record of a URL change for those domains.

So then I am unable to perform a change of address on this domain (domain.com) because the history of its older changes don't dissapear

I honestly don't know what to do because my new domain isn't ranking because I am unable to make a change of address on webmasters tools for the old domain.

I did a change of address through .htaccess and on the first couple of weeks google noted it but after that it no longer did and I stopped ranking on my new domain

2 years of work, all gone...

[TheMadScientist]

Hey, jhonatan1995...
First: Welcome to WebmasterWorld!

Second: I highly doubt your WMT info has anything to do with your lack of rankings, especially since you have a redirect in place. (I'd start double checking there and make sure the server headers are correct.) ... Beyond that, I'd start looking in other areas rather than paying any attention to what WMT says.

If your domains are not 'aligned' in your WMT account and it's concerning you as it seems to be, then you might want to put in a new 'change of address' from whatever they have it listed as right now to the old one, so instead of 'trying to withdraw' the old request, just put in a new change of address instead.

Either way, I'd definitely look at other areas, because if their algo is not overriding an obvious difference in domains, redirects, WMT info, then, in my opinion, they're missing something critical and much as people like to say 'Google's broken' these days, it's really not like them to 'just plain miss' things, so I might give a bit of thought to getting it correct, but if the domain you actually have the content on isn't ranking I'd definitely look at different areas, rapidly.

[jhonatan1995]

My new domain is www.example.ws

www.examplegratis.biz is my old domain, so I redirected it to the new domain. But I was unable to do it in webmasters tools because on the .biz domain it kept showing the older change of addresses I did in the past. So I redirected using .htaccess and it worked, I was ranking until the update. Not only I can't remove the change of addresses I did in the past for the .biz domain, I can't make a new change of address on WMT.

If you go to opensiteexplorer.org and type in www.example.net they'll give you www.examplegratis.biz because I redirected it a few months back. But if you type in www.examplegratis.biz they won't give you www.example.ws so I think that Google isn't picking my up my change of addresses and if they aren't then I won't rank because my .ws domain is 1 month old and I got no links to it as you can see, I expect all rankings to come from the .biz domain that I had for over 5 months on Google.

www.example.net redirects to the .ws also, .net was banned on Google due to DMCA but redirecting it to my new domain never impacted my ranking.
.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 9:37 am (utc) on Dec 24, 2012]
[edit reason] examplified domain [/edit]

[Robert Charlton]

While normally we don't mention SEO tools in the Google forum, I'm allowing the mention of Open Site Explorer here, as it's key to how you're assessing your situation... and it has been discussed elsewhere on this forum, and also in this thread in our Link Development forum...

Majestic SEO / Open Site Explorer comparison by Eric Enge
http://www.webmasterworld.com/link_development/4477415.htm [webmasterworld.com]

As both the review cited and my own experience bear out, the data in Open Site Explorer frequently is not fresh. I would never use it to assess the current status of Google's index.

I suggest that you physically check your redirects, and also check status codes returned for your domains with a server header checker.
.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 8:55 pm (utc) on Dec 24, 2012]

[Robert Charlton]

So I redirected using .htaccess and it worked, I was ranking until the update.

PS: This makes me consider one possibility in addition to all of the above.

Did you by any chance redirect to remove the effects of Penguin or Panda? If so, please describe this in more detail, as it might help to explain the situation.

Some Google "penalties" or filters, including some related to Penguin and/or Panda, can't be removed by 301 redirection. They might disappear for a short while, but they are likely to come back at an update. If this is the case, you might have several things happening at once, and this might be confusing the situation.

There are several other possibilities as well. Also, what is the elapsed time for each of these stages?

[jhonatan1995]

Robert and TheMadScientist thank you for your help so far.

No, I did not redirect to remove effects of Penguin or Panda because I do understand if I am penalized in one domain the penalty will go on to which ever domain I redirect it to.

I'm just going to start out fresh and wait for Google to reply or approve my Consideration request that I filed.

[Robert Charlton]

No, I did not redirect to remove effects of Penguin or Panda because I do understand if I am penalized in one domain the penalty will go on to which ever domain I redirect it to.

Good, though see my question about the .net domain below. Did you run a server header checker on your domains?

You also don't mention the timeline of what you've done. I'm thinking that some of these things may take longer to show effects in Google (both positive and negative) than you suppose.

www.example.net redirects to the .ws also, .net was banned on Google due to DMCA but redirecting it to my new domain never impacted my ranking.

Trying to leave no tern unstoned here, you are redirecting a banned domain to your current one, and conceivably that might look spammy... and it's something that might have taken Google a while to factor in. Pure conjecture... and, again, I'm not familiar with your timeline and not fully clear on what you've done.

I would let things sit for a while, untouched at this point, particularly because of the .net redirection and the recent drop.

See this discussion for reasons to be cautious about changing and then undoing changes (that involve potential spam signals) too often...

Google's Rank Modifying Patent for Spam Detection
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4486158.htm [webmasterworld.com]

[jhonatan1995]

I found more help here then at the WMT Forums on Google.

From about the 24th to 26th I ranked back. But after that I dissapeared again. What is happening is I'm ranking and 5 minutes later I'm no longer there. Past few days I haven't seen my site there.

I filed a reconsideration request and suprisingly I got a quick reply saying there was no manual spam found. To be more clear, I redirect 5 banned domains to this new one. Would that possibly be a reason for this problem? If I redirect only 1 or 2 would it make a difference?

I have other friends on the same category that dissapeared but one of them does not redirect any banned domains and has never had his domain banned.

Another friend of my stayed and he redirects 3 banned domains to his current one.

[TheMadScientist]

To be more clear, I redirect 5 banned domains to this new one. Would that possibly be a reason for this problem? If I redirect only 1 or 2 would it make a difference?

Ah, yeah, you might have some issues from that ... I wouldn't redirect any of them if they were actually banned and, personally, I would think working on building a site that isn't in danger of getting banned is a better direction moving forward.

[jhonatan1995]

Do you think if I stop redirecting 3 of the 5 domains, the 3 that have almost no links to it, would it help? Because the site ranking first in my category redirects 3 banned domains to his current one.

[jhonatan1995]

And one last question I have is I created a new Google Account, I needed a new email anyways. If I have 20 domains verified on my WMT and lets say 15 of them were banned from Google due to DMCA complaints, does that affect ranking in the other 5 that are clean?

[TheMadScientist]

...lets say 15 of them were banned from Google due to DMCA complaints...

I'm sorry to not be very likely to be helpful with this, but I think you're asking in the wrong place if you really have 15 banned domains from DMCA complaints ... I'd think some of the 'black hat' forums would be a better place to ask, because in the opinion of some of us (definitely mine), stealing copyrighted material (which is where DMCA complaint bans come from) is far from 'cool', so personally, I'm not too inclined to help you any more than I have, unless you can explain how you have 15 domains banned due to DMCA complaints and are not stealing other people's work.

Seriously, I personally think if the people who 'took stuff' from other people just spent their the time and creativity dreaming up and developing something of their own they would probably come up with something really cool and new they didn't have to steal from other people ... And to me, that's awesome for someone to be able to do ... (Seriously, I'd be totally impressed.) ... But 15 banned domains from DMCA complaints? Meh, that's nothing, anyone online can steal from other people who take the time and put in the effort to create things ... I'm definitely not impressed with domain bans in any way Man.

[jhonatan1995]

I don't have 15 lol, I said it as an example.

I work with streaming. But now I only link to streams that their owners (big corporations) don't mind about. Before I would insist in linking to domains that the owners (Big Corporations) would send DMCA complaints on it because it had a lot of traffic.

So I removed 3 of the domains that redirected to my new one. I came back for 1 day and ranked my original positions. But today I'm gone again.