People have asked me to speculate on why a domain name of theirs could possibly be banned by Google. There are many potential reasons, but an acquaintance of mined mentioned that spam related to the domain name could potentially be a reason for banning. From what I understand, it isn’t very difficult to spoof a spam email to make it look like it came from a particular domain name. If this happens and the domain name is put on a spam list, it could potentially lead to other negative ramifications.
One possible way to see if your domain name is being used for spamming is to create an email account with your hosting company, and have it act as a “catch all” for any email that comes to any email address associated with the domain name. While your inbox may become inundated with spam if it is being used deviously, you will know a potential reason for banning.
I am not an expert at this so I don’t know what you can do if you find out that your domain name is being used for spam, but at least you will know. Since I am not an attorney, I can’t give a legal opinion on this, but I would imagine there are legal issues if you receive a confidential email that was intended for another recipient. I really don’t know the law related to this, so it’s better to consult an attorney if you are receiving emails that appear to be confidential in nature and intended for someone else.
Any business unit that google has could have levied a ban on the name, which would then trickle into the SERPs. This could include Adsense, Google groups, etc. I believe google also watches many of the “spam databases” that list domains or IPs that spam is being sent from. It’d take a look at those lists and see if the name appears. You could also do a command, allinanchor:domain.com in Google and you can find out if someone is buying links on your behalf, which could cause a ban or penalty in Google.
I think that that being banned for someone else spoofing your domain name for spam is quite low. As Scott says above, that’s only one “signal” that Google to look at…chances are that the spammer hasn’t hacked into your mailserver to send spam from your domain from your mailserver which would be a much stronger signal of bad behavior.
Actions involving on-page SEO or forbidden linking practices by current or past domain owners are the most common reasons for being banned.
Great idea about the “catch-all” email address.
I know how to set up an email at my hosting company, but can you explain how to set it up to “… act as a “catch all” for any email that comes to any email address associated with the domain name.”?
Thanks.
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
At Godaddy, there is an option that you need to check off. My rep did it for me, so if you can’t find it, you can probably call their support line.