Google Penalty

[queefer]

Hi, I have a domain that currently redirects to my main site. It's been listed on google with the exact same content of my main site, and I realize that google penalizes duplicate content sites, so if I use the redirecting domain for a site, and change the content, will the penalty go away?

[Brian M]

Yes, if you change the re-directing site to even just a single landing page, that will get re-indexed and the duplicate content penalty will eventually be removed from your main site in all of the search engines.

You may speed things up with Google by requesting a re-inclusion request after you have fixed things, but your most important move is to be sure that your robots.txt files do not stop the robots from crawling either of your sites.

Also, if you change your main site (right after you change your redirect site), there is a good chance it will be indexed first. If the change is big enough, it will separate it from the redirect site (that has not yet been indexed), and start the penalty removal process a little early (maybe by only a few days, but every bit helps).

I have seen it take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months once the change is made, and I'm curious to see just how long it takes for you, so please let us all know how it works out.

Good luck!