Often there is the opportunity to buy a supposedly good domain at a bargain price. Then you hit it sometimes, without researching how this domain actually stands. Especially if you want to attract visitors via search engines, that is actually mandatory but will also be ignored. These researches are rarely fun. At the latest, with the website on the domain, despite all efforts not entwines, comes the frustration. But is everything really lost?

Basically, there are many ways why a domain falls out of favor with Google. Illegal content, piracy, black hat SEO and the like are the most common causes and can burn a domain ever properly. But that does not have to be the end of the domain, as Google Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller said. Anyone who has bought a domain that is negatively affected by the previous owner should, according to him, do one thing above all else: wait and see!

The question that John Mueller answered here from a domain owner was about a domain that had been negatively affected by piracy. Specifically, over two years of illegal content which was exploited there and this certainly did not go unnoticed by Google. How the penalties looked exactly, however, did not emerge from the question. Clearly it was the answer from Mueller, who confirmed: There are no real resets for websites! However, the domain is not necessarily lost if the problems did not persist for too long of a time period. So, for example, things went wrong for ten years, then the domain was nearly dead and can be given up at this point. If the problems lasted only a few months, there can still be some regulation. But that takes time too.

How long does it take exactly until a domain is rehabilitated again, Mueller did not say. But it is also assumed that it depends on the particular case. Generalizations are certainly not so easy to do. For webmasters, it’s a good idea to look in advance at what a domain is – or it brings a lot of patience if you make a bad choice.