301 Redirects: Will an Old Domain's SEO Penalty Carry Over to a New Domain?

[nicemkay]

I have a domain that I'd like to 301 to a new domain, and treat it as an acquisition. The old domain has authority, however it was penalized in December 2020.

I hadn't done any shady off-page SEO, and my suspicion is that it was penalized because of it's YMYL nature, and because it had high amount of commercial articles.

Would the penalty be carried over to the new domain?

 

[thisishatred]

It's important to note - is this a manual penalty or an algorithmic penalty?

If the former, I know back in the day Matt Diggity wrote an article on double 301s that talked about manual penalties. I can't seem to locate the exact case study / article - it may be from Facebook like 5+ years ago.

Fairly certain the 301 worked mildly/intermittently but in every case the actual penalty eventually caught up.

Edit: Looks like Matt actually took the post down

https://web.archive.org/web/20221003011212/https://diggitymarketing.com/how-to-remove-penalties-with-double-301-redirects/

Just from memory, I'm fairly certain the penalty always caught up though - even though at the end of that article he states:

"Do the rankings stick? For this particular testcase, it’s been 1.5 months since the 301 redirect, and not only is it sticking, but the site is now back to page 1. No additional links necessary."

I could be remembering incorrectly though.

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If the latter (algo penalty) - fairly certain a 301 isn't going to get you out of the issue.

Rather, I'd follow the stuff @Ryuzaki lists here: https://www.buildersociety.com/thre...-seo-sites-with-the-kitchen-sink-method.5607/ - Those are good starting points for a YMYL site.

 

[Ryuzaki]

Without being verbose, a penalty will follow you. Google solved that a decade ago during the Penguin era.

 

[nicemkay]

Rather, I'd follow the stuff @Ryuzaki lists here: https://www.buildersociety.com/thre...-seo-sites-with-the-kitchen-sink-method.5607/ - Those are good starting points for a YMYL site.

Thank you. I also checked out Matt Diggity's blog and his latest video, which is also on 301 redirects, and asked him in the comments, and he suggested not to use that domain.

Regarding the kitchen sink method - I started it last year but didn't thoroughly go through every little thing. But I think I will this time. Given that everyone seems to suggest that the penalty will catch on, I'm not seeing any other solution here.

Without being verbose, a penalty will follow you. Google solved that a decade ago during the Penguin era.

Thanks, that's what I needed to know.

Given everyone's advice and all the info so far, I'm going back to the kitchen sink.