Cloudflare 522 error means old domain not being redirected

[Caroline]

Hello,

A client had an old domain -Domain A -which was being redirected we think (it was before our time). The client let the old domain expire unfortunately and it was bought by someone unknown. So we have no access to it. The problem is that the redirects don't work anymore. Since it is over a year it should be fine. But when I do a site:domain command, I see that the old domain homepage is in the index but when I click the search results, the error is a 522 CloudFlare connection error.

So it seems that the search engines still think that the homepage exists, but they cannot access it to find the 301 or a 404.
I am investigating because the new domain, Domain B, has a home page that doesn't rank well, and the content is nearly the same as that of the old domain, Domain A (using Wayback machine).

My thoughts are that since Google still has the old homepage with Domain A in the index but can't access it to see the redirect, it thinks it exists independently and when it checks Domain B (NEW DOMAIN), it sees two home pages with nearly the same content and so penalises Domain B.

Would this be a correct way of thinking things through? Other pages on Domain B rank well so it is just affecting the homepage. Any thoughts would be welcome as well as any solutions!
Thanks

 

[keyserholiday]

The old domain stopped redirecting once the domain expired. I doubt your homepage ranking issues are related to this domain.

 

[Caroline]

Thanks. Yes, I think that the redirect is gone. That is the problem. Also, the old domain's (www) homepage seems to be in Google's index if I use the site command. Clicking it leads to a 522 error- not a 410 or 404. So, Google thinks it is an independent website different from Domain B. It can't access it to see that it is a 404 now. Perhaps, the www version was never set up properly as a redirect unlike the non-www version of the domain ( the non www versions go to a 404 page). So at one point, the www version was indexed when it should have been redirected. So in the index is the old www homepage and the new domain homepage - no redirection. I feel that is the root cause

 

[keyserholiday]

Since your client is not hosting, you can ignore it.

 

[Caroline]

Hi,

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Can you explain? If there is duplicated content on the web then we can use canonicals or 301s to prevent duplication or consolidate content. Since the old domain is out there still and the homepage indexed (inaccessible though) with the same content as the new domain but it's not redirected or canonicalised, then there is an instance of duplication surely which will impact ranking? It doesn't matter who is hosting it if there is the same content on two domains? Perhaps I'm overthinking this one....

 

[keyserholiday]

You are overthinking this. If your client no longer owns the domain, you can't set up 301 redirects. Look up the domain in viewdns, and you can see when the domain was last registered. Then, head over to Wayback Machine to see if you can see the homepage content. Cloudflare is stating the original host is not responding. With ViewDNS, you can see where the domain is hosted or if it's not hosted. The 522 error means, there is no current website or hosting.

I'd focus on auditing the home page content and seeing if a refresh is needed.