Dumb SEO Questions

(Entry was posted by Daniel Hartnett on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 12/13/2018).

Salvaging content from penalised website

Quick question My brother had a website last year that was hacked where some of stuck a bunch of spam links on the site. unfortunately, google completely kicked the site out of the index and it never recovered. It`s unfortunate, but the content was solid great 110+ articles which amazing graphics. I am wondering if there a way to salvage this content. Like just purchase a new domain name an transfer all the content over and just 301 the old domain to the new website? My brother thinks it`s a waste of time but I think it`s worth a shot. Any advice from experts out there?
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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

  • Francois-Pierre Marcil: You can either 1) Disavow all the bad links +clean the hack (often long) or 2) Take the old domain down, put all the stuff on the new domain, no 301 as that would pass the bad stuff. Start from there.
  • Daniel Hartnett: Francois-Pierre Marcil thanks
  • Richard Hearne: Define "it never recovered"? Was it ever re-indexed? Did you receive a spam message inside Google Search Console? Did you file for re-inclusion via Google Search Console?
  • Michael Martinez: If you move the content, DO NOT implement any redirects. Google will forward any negative value to the new destination (eventually). Instead of registering a new domain, you could move the content to a subdomain (like "m.example.tld"). We have done that successfully but it looks weird. Ignore any and all arguments about "subdomains versus subfolders".
  • Richard Hearne: Any particular SEO benefit from moving to subdomain over a fresh new domain, or was this simply for branding?
  • Michael Martinez: Richard Hearne Simply for branding. Although we use subdomains all the time, we have not found that either type of URL has an SEO advantage over the other. Each is a better fit in some situations than the other. And every time someone brings up the argument I just point to en-dot-wikipedia-dot-org.

View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 12/13/2018).