Google says that solely previous grownup domains and spam-only domains could cause issues when a brand new web site is posted on them

Google’s John Mueller said that when it comes to reusing old domains that may not have been used but have been redirected elsewhere, that’s fine for the most part. The only times that SEO or Google ranking issues can arise is when this domain has been redirected or used in pure spam cases or for adult websites.

John was asked, “Do I have to worry if I buy a domain that has been redirected (or has no traffic) in the past 17 years?” John replied, “It’s probably okay, provided it has been diverted to a reasonable destination.”

The redirected location only matters if it was redirected to pure spam or an adult website, John later added. “I’d just see where it goes – it’s usually easy to tell if it’s pure spam or an adult website,” said John. John added, “Everything else is probably fine.”

Here are these tweets:

It’s probably okay, provided it’s been redirected to a reasonable destination.

– 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) November 28, 2021

I would just see where it belongs – it’s usually easy to tell if it’s pure spam or an adult website. Everything else is probably ok.

– 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) November 28, 2021

We understand the problems with adult websites and how long it can take to google reclassify a domain as not of legal age. But pure spam is something new to me, just as a domain can have such a bad spam history that Google cannot handle new content and new purposes on that domain even if the domain has not been used for some time.

Forum discussion at Twitter.