Can You Redirect A Google Penalty? Probably.

Jul 23, 2013 - 8:58 am 39 by

traffic conesShould you redirect a site that has a Google penalty to a site that does not have a penalty?

I get this question all the time from webmasters. They have a bunch of sites, some of those sites got hit by either an algorithmic or manual penalty. They don't want to lose everything, so they ask if they should 301 redirect the penalized domain to the unpenalized domain.

My answer is almost always, don't do it. Don't send the negative link signals from your penalized domain to your unpenalized domain.

I don't think Google ever specifically answered this question - they may have. But it seems logical not to want to redirect a bad site to a clean site.

Oh, so what about negative SEO you ask? Good question. What is to stop you from redirecting your penalized domain to a competitors site? I guess Google has some failsafes for stuff like that?

What do you think?

Forum discussion at BlackHat Forum.

Image credit to BigStockPhoto for traffic cones

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: June 20, 2025

Jun 20, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Volatility, AI Mode in Search Console, Audio Overviews and ChatGPT Search Quality

Jun 20, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Larger & Longer Issues Can Take Longer To Reverse In Google Search

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Troubleshooting On Blocking Content From AI Mode & AI Overviews

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google Video Search Tests Speaker Icon With Language Label

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google

Google Investigating Search Clicks Leading To Translated Results

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Cartoon Authorship In Google's Rich Snippets