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Three months ago I created a new site. I bought a brand new snazzy domain name, set up the hosting, uploaded the content, and away we go. It went well. I got an early entry into the ODP, a few generous links here and there, and some nice comments about the content.
I put a bit more work into it and steadily it grew into a pretty good content site. Eventually this approach tends to pay dividends. Well.... not this time.
I thought it was odd with last Google re-index as I had a no-show. Maybe I got my dates wrong I thought. No... another no-show this time round and a PR0. Can that be right?
I then did what I should have done at the outset. Investigation on the domain name. Lo and behold... in Archive.Org... there it was from a couple of years ago. I wasn't the first owner of this domain name - some domain spamming outfit had used it, and had clearly attracted a PR0 penalty (I can smell the spamminess of their site just by looking at the archive).
World falls apart at that point (yesterday morning). I spent a couple of hours hating Google, hating the previous owners, just hating. I felt sick.
What to do? No, I couldn't email Google and beg for a review... apart from anything else, I can't sit on my hands waiting for someone else to respond (which they may never do). Not my style.
Therefore: New domain, new host, move content (and change it a bit). Re-sub to ODP and send a begging email to the editor. Email those who had linked previously. Now I wait.
I've had a lucky break in that the ODP guy has already been back and has changed it. I wonder though if I'm too late on the current GBot crawl. Any views on that?
Anyhow, the main point of this..... you MUST check any domain you buy. MANDATORY. This was a clean purchase, a new one, not second hand in any way. Don't meet the same fate as I just have.
Google.... if you can wipe the slate clean of links when a domain is re-purchased.... shouldn't you be wiping the slate clean in terms of penalties? I think so. I'm totally innocent here, and I'll tell you what - I am not the first, and won't be the last, to suffer unfairly like this.
I'm going for a drink!
What to do? No, I couldn't email Google and beg for a review... apart from anything else, I can't sit on my hands waiting for someone else to respond (which they may never do). Not my style.
Actually, an email would have worked. I fell into the same boat as you, a re-inclusion request last month got me back in the SERPS (though way down there) along with a PR1. I am still hoping to get credit for the links I had gotten...fingers crossed for next month!
Nothing to hide to be honest, but nonetheless, I like anonymity. The least risky course was to weep and start again.
