Expired domain penalty is not fair

[micro]

Unfortunately forgot my nick and login so had to create a new one.

Here my ramblings:

Google introduced the new "expired domain filter" - which is fine and I don't care much about it except for the following:

We have bought expired domains from domain brokers because of the domain name itself and not the old baggage. The domains wehre suitable for clients projects. We developed them with conservative seo.

The domains had PR ranging from 3 to 6, through NEW links.

Now after the filter becoming active most of those are either PR0 or PR 1-2.

That sucks completely. All the new links (there weren't any special old links) are gone. Why does Google introduce a filter, if they can't handle the counting of new links?

Further it is totally unfair that Google introduces such a filter, but apparently can’t even reset penalties that might have occurred ages ago at the same time old links are reset?

Is this fair?

PS: pls excuse my bad english.

[lawman]

What Google email account should I send inquiry regarding reduction in PR?

lawman

[GoogleGuy]

I would write to [e-mail] with the subject line "expired domain" or do it with a spam report..

[Loki99]

Googleguy,

Will you please answer my question?

Will links be counted that are gained AFTER a site is re-registered (expired domain)?

Ex. I register an expired domain today. Tomorrow (or 2 weeks from now) I start trying to get appropriate links. Will those links count JUST AS IF THE DOMAIN WAS NEW(not previously registered)?

Thank you

[Felina]

Seems my domain had only 6 links to it. Four months later I registered it, and within a week had content up and started with the link campaign.
As of last month had 261 links, today nada zip zilch..

[anray]

I have just registered an expired domain and I am going to develop it and exchanges links, will the newly exchanged links stay or will it be gone? I have heard many stories about pr 0 for expired domain with the new update and even newly created links gone missing.

[lawman]

Thanks GG.

BTW, anyone know how I find out if I purchased an expired domain?

lawman

[GoogleGuy]

Sure, Loki99. After the rollout is complete (I expect 2-3 months), links made after a domain expired will be counted. That applies retroactively too, so if someone registered an expired domain 4 months ago, all links less than 4 months old would count toward PageRank. However, until the rollout is fully completed, I wouldn't be surprised if not all links are counted/reported for expired domains. It's a byproduct of the rollout method to see that behavior. Hope that helps explain things, but the short answer to your question is "yes". :)

[Loki99]

Thank You.

I appreciate your reply.

[stever]

So if the expired domain widgets.com had a link from widgetshub.com, would a link from that site be worthless forever, or would the link need to be dropped and then taken up again by widgetshub.com with the new appropriate description?

[Felina]

I can see the Google reasoning behind this to a point but to loose a site of pr7 down to 0 while the rollout over the next couple of months , really sucks.
Wonder how many links I'll have lost by then when they see the site is down to a pr0.

[mosley700]

I don't know if I trust Google to credit/discredit the sites with links based on when they were acquired. Say that site was in DMOZ, and expired, and then you put up essentially the same site as before so the DMOZ link never changes. But then you never get credit for the DMOZ link?
I'm planning on being a bit more careful to avoid previously owned domains. I have three sites on previously owned domains, and if need be they'll be moved to new domains.
I appreciate Google protecting consumers from those spammy folks who buy up expired domains, but I'm not confident that some innocent folks won't hit by friendly fire.

[mfishy]

This is the unfortunate way Google acts in regards to their spam filters.

They roll out blanket spam filters and pay little to no attention to the webmasters who get destroyed for no apparent reason. A few months until you get out of a PR0 for a webmaster could be the end of their business.

Google could basically care less about the individual webmaster. They just want to automate the process of cleaning up their index as much as possible. While it is a nioce gesture that they have a representative on this forum, the fact is, in the big picture, they are a steamroller and we are ants.

Funny thing is, it's easire then ever to spam Google

[zgb999]

<So if the expired domain widgets.com had a link from widgetshub.com, would a link from that site be worthless forever>

It would be very difficult to tell all sites with a link to widgets.com to delete the link and put it up again. But if I buy widgets.com and I do have a site about widgets it is obvious that I need to get all sites that already have a link to widgets.com to change their link. Google is really questioning a lot with this new rule. I fully understand why they are doing it but it is changing more than we see right now.

E.g. if I want to buy a company I do a Due Dilligence to find out what the company is worth. If now that company (willingly or unwillingly) lets their domain expire an I don't realise this I will have paid much too much for a company which I would only realise after re-registering the domain (under the new company name).

[AAnnAArchy]

GoogleGuy

After the rollout is complete (I expect 2-3 months), links made after a domain expired will be counted. That applies retroactively too, so if someone registered an expired domain 4 months ago, all links less than 4 months old would count toward PageRank.

Besides the fact that this is completely unfair to webmasters who didn't even know they were buying an expired domain name (not every domain shows up in The Wayback Machine), it makes it impossible for someone who bought the expired domain of sterlingsilverwidgets.com to get old links to count again. If Sterling Silver Widgets are a product that the new domain owner (and no one else) makes, how will the site get links back to it that count if in its previous life it already had links from DMOZ, Yahoo, The Library of Congress, etc., that won't count for it ever again?

I can't believe that Google will be punishing innocent webmasters for a minimum of 2-3 months, just because they bought an expired domain. Wouldn't it make more sense to figure out it all out *before* punishing sites that haven't done anything wrong?