Google's John Mueller said when it comes to repurposing old domains that may have not been used but were being redirected elsewhere, it is fine for the most part. The only cases where it can cause SEO or Google ranking issues is if that domain was redirected or used in pure spam cases or for adult sites.
John was asked "should I be concerned if I buy a domain that has been redirecting (or has zero traffic) in the last 17 years?" John responded "It's probably fine, assuming it's been redirecting to a reasonable destination."
The redirected location really only matters if it is was redirected to pure spam or an adult site, John added later. "I'd just check where it goes - it's usually easy to tell if it's pure spam or an adult site," John said. John added "anything else is probably ok."
Here are those tweets:
It's probably fine, assuming it's been redirecting to a reasonable destination.
— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) November 28, 2021
I'd just check where it goes - it's usually easy to tell if it's pure spam or an adult site. Anything else is probably ok.
— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) November 28, 2021
We know the issues with adult sites and how long it can take for Google to reclassify a domain as not adult. But the pure spam is somewhat new to me, like a domain can have such a bad history of spamming that Google won't be able to handle new content and new purposed on that domain even if the domain has not been used for some time.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
