The business had the history. We helped restore the visibility.

R.G. Simpson & Company is a wholesale postage stamp business founded in 1929, the oldest company we’ve worked with so far.

For nearly a century it has served collectors and dealers through its catalogs, long-term customer relationships and reputation in the industry.

But its online presence had been compromised. Years earlier, the original domain had expired and been taken over by cybersquatters, who later used it for spam. The business then commissioned a replacement website on another domain, but it didn’t reflect the professionalism, trust or legacy of the company.

That’s when the owners came to us.

At first it looked like a website redesign for a historic business. A closer look showed something much larger: recovering the company’s online identity itself.

Before development began, we checked the original domain and found that the cybersquatters had abandoned it.

We re-registered it, returning the domain to its rightful owners.

This mattered for several reasons:

• longtime customers already knew the original address

• printed materials referenced it

• the company’s reputation was tied to it

The business could once again operate under its own name online.

After the new website launched, another major issue surfaced.

Because of the earlier spam, Google had applied a manual action penalty to the domain, which heavily suppressed the site in Google Search. In practice:

• the site barely appeared in search results

• most potential customers could not discover it organically

• the website was effectively invisible to the majority of users

That mattered, because Google dominates search in the U.S.

The site indexed normally in Bing, which confirmed the problem was tied to Google’s spam systems.

At that point the project grew from a website design into an SEO recovery and reputation restoration effort.

So, with the new design already live, we went back to work on the site itself. We proposed a full recovery strategy built around its legitimacy, usefulness and trust signals. Filing an appeal alone wouldn’t be enough. The site needed to show clearly that:

• the spam owners were gone

• the domain belonged to a legitimate historic business

• the new content provided real value

• the site was actively maintained and trustworthy

The earlier site relied on downloadable price lists with very little supporting information. To make it more useful and credible, we:

• added new informational pages

• expanded product descriptions

• clarified the ordering process

• redesigned the order and inquiry forms

• added explanations of abbreviations and stamp terminology

• improved navigation and page hierarchy

• created supporting informational content for collectors and buyers

The goal was to turn a thin catalog into a credible business resource.

At the same time, we redesigned the look of the site. The owners asked us to bring back the style of their original website, with its collage of vintage stamps that longtime customers knew. So we did, with a refreshed approach: the familiar feel stays, but the layout is cleaner, easier to read and more in keeping with the company’s long history.

The new direction draws on:

• traditional print catalogs

• collector publications

• heritage businesses

This included:

• serif typography

• more elegant spacing

• improved visual hierarchy

• cleaner navigation

• a more premium presentation of products and documents

The redesigned site finally looks like a business founded in 1929.

We also carried out extensive technical cleanup to improve search trust and indexing:

• improving metadata and indexing signals

• creating a clearer site structure and navigation

• improving how search engines understand and index the site

• ensuring consistency across content and ownership signals

We made sure the site clearly reflected the real business and its restored ownership.

Once the site had been substantially rebuilt, we submitted a reconsideration request to Google explaining:

• the history of the domain

• the cybersquatting situation

• the ownership restoration

• the removal of spam-related content

• the legitimacy of the current business

Google would only reconsider the domain once these technical and content improvements were in place.

On May 27, 2026, Google officially lifted the manual action.

The domain was back in good standing, and the website could once again be found by the vast majority of searchers.

For the client, this wasn’t just a successful redesign. It was the recovery of a business asset connected to nearly a century of history.

Immediate impact

• Historic domain successfully recovered

• Google penalty removed

• Improved visibility in search

• Stronger trust and credibility

• More premium visual identity

• Clearer ordering experience

• Easier navigation for collectors and dealers

Long-term value

• Restored ownership of the company’s online identity

• Stronger SEO foundation

• Better discoverability in Google

• Easier communication with customers

• Scalable platform for future updates and content

• Digital presence aligned with the business’s legacy

• Website strategy
• Domain recovery
• SEO recovery
• Content expansion
• UX redesign
• Technical cleanup
• Google reconsideration support
• Brand presentation

Visit rgsimpson.com →

Sometimes a website project isn’t only about design. Sometimes it’s about restoring visibility, credibility and ownership itself.