When I bought my domain, I thought I was getting a fresh start.
Turns out, the domain had a history — spammy backlinks, low trust, and the kind of SEO baggage no developer wants. Instead of abandoning it, I decided to fix it the right way while building a real product: Tooliofy — a lightweight web platform for useful online tools.
This post is for developers and indie builders who might face the same situation.
The Problem: A Domain With a Bad Past
- Pages were indexable but not indexed
- Google Search Console showed slow crawling
- SEO tools revealed toxic backlinks from the domain’s previous life
There was no manual penalty, but clearly Google didn’t trust the domain yet.
Step 1: Cleaning Up Toxic Backlinks (Without Panic)
- Audited backlinks using SEO tools
- Identified obvious spam (casino, adult, auto-generated links)
- Submitted a single, clean disavow file via Google Search Console
Disavow is not instant. It’s a signal, not a switch.
Google needs time to reprocess those links.
Step 2: Building Something Actually Useful
Instead of obsessing over indexing delays, I focused on building real utility.
On Tooliofy, the goal is simple:
- Fast, browser-based tools
- No bloated UI
- Clear purpose per page
Each tool page explains:
- What the tool does
- Who it’s for
- When it’s useful
- Why it exists
Thin pages don’t earn trust — products do.
Step 3: Making the Site Trust-Friendly
For reused domains, trust signals matter more than ever. I added:
- A proper About page
- Clear Contact information
- Privacy Policy & Terms
- Clean internal linking between pages
This helps both users and search engines understand intent.
Step 4: Slow, Clean Backlinks Only
No backlink blasts. No Fiverr gigs.
- Writing on Dev.to (this post)
- Sharing progress in indie communities
- Linking naturally from GitHub and social profiles
- Letting useful tools earn links over time
One or two clean links per week beats 100 spammy ones.
What I Learned
- 🚫 A slow index doesn’t mean your site is broken
- 🧹 Disavowing bad links early is the right move
- 🧠 Google treats reused domains cautiously
- 🕐 Trust recovery takes weeks to months
- 🛠️ Shipping useful tools matters more than SEO hacks
Final Thoughts
If you’re building on a domain with history:
- Don’t panic
- Don’t over-optimize
- Don’t abandon it too early
I’ll keep improving Tooliofy and adding genuinely useful tools — and let search engines catch up naturally.
Check it out: https://tooliofy.com
Top comments (1)
Such an interesting topic. It never occurred to me that domain could come with baggage, but now that you explained it, it makes perfect sense.
Have there been any tools or websites you have used and would recommend for this sort of thing?