DOMAIN OWNERSHIP HISTORY – 1 BIG GOOGLE RANKING FACTOR?

Chances are that the bright shiny domain you registered today will have a history attached to it. There’s a very good chance someone owned your domain name before you bought it.

Yes, a domain’s history does matter, even after ownership changes hands and it gets repurposed into your new site.

The reality is, domain history matters more than site owners may know. Unfortunately some new domain owners don’t learn that until it’s too late.

Your domain name that’s being used by your legitimate business today may have previously been used by a payday loan website, or a piracy site, or any other type of website that Google frowns upon.

Google has addressed the topic of domain history and its impact on SERP (Search Engine Results Page) rankings on several occasions. It has consistently stated that how a domain name was used in the past can be a factor in how Google treats it today with regard to SERP rankings.

The impact can range from moderate to severe. The most severe issue a site owner could run into is acquiring a domain with a history of unresolved manual actions.

Google’s actions don’t just go away on, even after the previous owner sells the domain or lets the registration lapse. The penalties must be dealt with, or the domain’s next owner may find their website demoted or even deindexed right from day one of your ownership.

This issue is discussed in a video with former Googler Matt Cutts, who recommended researching a domain before purchasing it.

Once you’re the site owner, you can immediately find out if your domain has a manual action against it by checking the manual action report in Google Search Console.

Don’t panic. Manual actions against a domain name are usually only a temporary setback as all manual actions can be resolved.

In some cases, a domain may not have a manual penalty tied with it, but the domain may still have a negative history with Google.

In those cases, the domain may still be impacted negatively in search results. Google’s John Mueller says if it is, that’s an issue that will resolve itself over time.

John stated:

‘It really depends on the extent of the bad history and how long it was going on for. If there was just a brief period of bad history then it will eventually disappear on its own, Mueller says. However, if the period of bad history goes back upwards of ten years or longer, then it may be a cause for concern. Mueller suggests using Archive.org to view the history of the domain and see how long the bad activity was going on for.’

However you may find out that the site has a long negative history with Google. If so, you may Site owners may have to start over with a new domain.