: SEO history of recycled domain name I have purchased a recycled domain name and I have just been told that if I use the recycled domain name (that I now own) I will inherit any penalties

 

@Kristi941

Manual penalties are rare, and most will be algorithmically generated. This means that any penalties caused by on-site black-hat SEO should go when you upload a new site.

I imagine the only real penalties you have to worry about are from bad backlinks. Check these, and if there are lots of spam links (directory / articles etc) pointing to your homepage, then there is a high chance that it will have some negative effect on your search position. Even if it doesn't have a penalty now, bad backlinks could well trigger a future penalty. Lots of sites were not hit when the Penguin update first came out, but then got a penalty when it was updated.

If you bought the domain from a 'domain flipper', then it almost certainly will have or will get a penalty. They usually use automated spam software to build the pagerank.

Matt Cutts from Google's advice may help:

(See what messages webmaster tools gives you)

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