Google Algo Bug Puts Sites In Weird Limbo State - Search Engine Journal

Google's John Mueller confirmed a rare algorithm bug that causes sites to get stuck in a limbo that prevents them from ranking

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In a Google Office-hours hangout, John Mueller answered a question about how long it takes for Google to re-rank a website that disappeared and returned. Part of his answer revealed an insight into a rare problem at Google that stops a website from ranking for any keywords at all, not even the name of the domain.

John Mueller described it as a state of limbo, an in-between state.

Background Information About Legacy Domain Penalty

Something I’ve only encountered a few times that is so rare that it doesn’t have a name, so I call it a legacy domain penalty.

Legacy software is old software that can’t be replaced because so many people use it. For this domain related issue, it’s a penalty that is attached to a domain but does not show up in Google Search Console so it cannot be removed.

There is no way to detect that a domain is affected by this kind of penalty other than the site cannot rank for anything, not even its own domain name.

But because Search Console doesn’t register the penalty there is no way to submit a reconsideration request because search console reports that there is no penalty.

John Mueller was presented with a...



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