It was generally thought that if you get a penalty on a domain, you can change domains, and that will in-turn eliminate that penalty. Sure, if you redirect the old domain to the new domain, we know that the penalty can follow. But if there are no redirects in place, most SEO professionals thought this was a clean start and thus, the penalty would disappear.
In John Mueller’s latest Google Office Hours Hangout, he said the opposite. John stated that if you have a penalty and you change domains, Google may recognize the content on the old domain as the same content on the new domain and pass the penalty over to the new domain.
It seems that there is no escaping a Google penalty. You simply need to get it cleaned up, or risk your content being penalized, even if you take the time to switch domain names and don’t put in place redirects.
Watch Video: Google Penalty Follows Domain Change no Redirects
Watch John Comment on This by Clicking Here
Or Watch the Full Video Below Comment Made at 23 minutes and 15 Seconds