Everyone knows that you should check the history of a domain name before you buy it. But what if you did, you looked at the domain name history, the wayback machine, and other metrics but didn't have access to the Google Search Console messages. Then you bought the domain name, verified the domain with Google and the messages about the domain name having a penalty now come up.
What do you do now?
Well, that is the topic of a thread at Black Hat World and the overwhelming majority of those who replied to the thread are telling this SEO to ditch the domain name. Some say, just trash the domain name and move on. Some say, don't spend time on the domain name and just set it on auto-pilot. Very few are suggesting you try a reconsideration request and then start spamming.
Let's not forget what Matt Cutts said years ago about digging yourself out of a hole. It is often easier to start with a new domain then to use a penalized domain and start from level -5 just to get back to level 0.
Have you bought a spammy domain name before?
Forum discussion at Black Hat World.
