Moving a penalty hit site to a new domain

[stormface]

Hi there

I've just been hit by a manual spam action on a review site that was previously doing well in search. I know this is because I overoptimised on anchor text, but it worked so well that I did it anyway, till now.

I'm thinking of buying a new or aged domain and moving the site to a new host and domain, but I have a few questions...

Question 1: In terms of 'pleasing google' can I just copy the site over as is, or should I make some changes to the new site so it doesn't look like an exact copy?

Question 2 I use wordpress (self hosted). If I can just keep the site the same, is there an easy way to move domains and host? Say by backing up the wordpress database, installing a new copy of wordpress on the new host and domain, and then putting the old database with it? Or do I need to set it up from fresh and copy and paste every page etc?

Question 3 Do i redirect the old site to the new one? I know that many people have different opinions on whether 301 passes a penalty, although as I understand, it does eventually but it's ok for a few months. So do people recommend I 301 it, or perhaps 302, or don't redirect it at all?

Thanks so much for any help!

Lou

 

[morgan456]

Create a subdomain for the site and redirect to your home page which is already there in the other domain....

 

[stormface]

Thanks for your input, but I feel a little confused by this, do I create the subdomain on the existing money site, or on the new domain?

thanks!