Previously Penalised Domain Question

Hi guys,

I will try and keep this short. 3 years ago I built a site on a domain and successfully ranked it to number 1 only for it to be penalised (homepage dropped out of index so over optimisation penalty). I held on to the domain for some reason and 3 months ago threw up a site on it and it indexed instantly on page 2. Now I have been trying to rank it since and I am on them middle of page 1 but the site just won't move. I have more quality links than the competition and much better on page. Could this previous penalty be making it harder to rank? Should I drop this domain and move to a new one? Interested on hearing peoples thoughts as this niche is medium comp but I have thrown everything at it and it won't budge for over 5 weeks now.

Thanks

Don't reuse a penalized domain. It's never gonna fly.

Even though it indexed straight on to page 2? My gut tells me it should not be this difficult to rank for this niche and this is the only thing I can think of..

Penalized domain should not be used ! Move your content to an another site. Good luck !

Better not reuse your penalized domain. However, if you really like to still use it, try to check if you could fix that penalty somehow - in your case, with over optimization. Otherwise, better use another domain, and avoid doing things that may lead you to the same penalty. Best of luck.