Banned site

[jdavis]

What are the options to check if a site is banned before purchasing it.

For instance if the domain has expired and dropped out of Google's index, is using the way back machine and checking for clues the best way to do it?

[BobBobby]

Put the site in your profile and I'm sure someone will help.

[WebSavvy]

Hi jdavis, I moved your thread to this forum (Domain Names & Registrars) because it's more appropriate.

A domain that has a shady past would have issues with more SEs other than just Google.

Using the Wayback machine may be helpful, that is if the previous domain owner didn't block them from their server (for example, I block them from mine).

Do you have any information about the domain that you're able to tell us?

For example:
Is it a newly expired domain?
What industry was the former site in (pharma would be an indication some trouble may exist)

... and so forth.

It helps to provide as much information as you're able to. If you'd like us to help you research this, please post the domain name to this thread but do not live link it.

We have quite a few members in here that are pretty good at finding hidden information about the past history of an expired domain.

[jdavis]

Hi it's not regarding a particular site, it's just to find out good practice.

A recent site someone asked me to look at was banned in Google.
They had bought an expired domain name.

When I looked at the way back machine I was able to tell that the site had a poor history and hence was banned.

Now what I'm trying to find out is if there's any other practical steps to take to check if an expired domain name is banned?

[TDTechFlex]

I'd do a site:www.domain.com and site:domain.com search and see if there are any results returned. If there are none, it's a possibility that the site is banned which would mean you'd need to submit a reinclusion request through Google's Webmaster Tools. It could also return no results if the domain has been expired long enough for the site to fall out of Google's index, you'd need to see if the expiration date was about 90 days old or so, and even then I would recommend a reinclusion request when you get your site built.

[BobBobby]

Think of buying a Domain as buying a business. IF you intend to keep all content pages the same and NOT change the sites theme, you MAY retain the SE traffic. IF you change/modify/delete all content pages you will likely NOT retain the SE traffic.

[Danny]

Probably you should always distrust an expired domain.
If it's a very good domain name in a competive market, then that should ring a bell.

For a non-expired domain with a site on it, a site: search and a full inspection of the site, and the ones it is linked to, could tell you a lot.

Without any site or in case the domain is expired, the wayback machine is also imo the way to start.
Next i'd simply search for the domain (just "exemple.com" and not "site:exemple.com") and see what comes up. Check for blog posts, forums posts, FFA link pages...